normal drafts would

douhua2233 · Verfasst am: 27.09.2018, 06:03 Titel: **normal drafts would**

The Toronto Maple Leafs know they’ve just completed the best statistical season in franchise history.

And Frederik Andersen knows he now holds the team’s all-time record for goalie wins in a season.

What remains a mystery for the Leafs is their first-round playoff opponent.

Andersen made 31 saves to pick up his 38th victory of the season Saturday and Toronto closed out its schedule by defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4-2.

The Leafs finished with a club-record 105 points – bettering the 103 earned in the pre-lockout 2003-04 season before the shootout was introduced to break ties – but will have to wait until the Boston Bruins play the Florida Panthers on Sunday to see where they open their next playoff chapter.

A win for the Bruins over the Panthers Womens C.J. Mosley Jersey , who have been eliminated from postseason contention, would see Boston move into first in the Atlantic Division and set up a meeting between Tampa Bay and Toronto.

A victory in regulation for the Panthers, meanwhile, would see the Leafs and Bruins square off.

Asked if he would be watching Sunday’s finale, a makeup game after Boston and Florida were snowed out in January, Andersen indicated he has other plans.

”No,” he said. ”I’m going to watch the Masters.”

Auston Matthews scored his 34th goal of the season to match his jersey number and added an assist for Toronto (49-26-7), which also set club records for overall victories and home wins (29).

Zach Hyman, Nazem Kadri and Patrick Marleau had the other goals for the Leafs, who are going to the playoffs for the second consecutive spring. Jake Gardiner added two assists.

Andersen’s 37 victories coming in saw him sit tied with Ed Belfour (2002-03) and Andrew Raycroft (2006-07) for the most by a Toronto goalie in a season.

Now he sits alone in first.

”It’s fun when you set goals at the beginning of the year and then you achieve some of them,” Andersen said. ”It goes without saying that there are bigger goals.”

Leafs coach Mike Babcock was pleased to see his team come through for its goalie in a game that didn’t mean anything in the standings.

”He’s been a huge part of our team,” Babcock said. ”That record is a special http://www.lionscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-matthew-stafford-jersey , special thing.”

Daniel Carr and Jeff Petry scored for Montreal (29-40-13). Carey Price stopped 26 shots for the visitors as the Canadiens wrapped up a disappointing season.

The players observed a moment of silence before the game to honor the victims of Friday’s horrific crash in Saskatchewan that saw a tractor-trailer collide with a bus carrying a junior hockey team, killing 15 people and injuring 14 others.

The Leafs and Canadiens also sported Broncos decals on their helmets.

Tied 1-1 through 40 minutes, Hyman chipped a rebound past Price just 37 seconds into the third for his 15th goal and 40th point of the season after Matthews took the initial shot.

Andersen made a good stop on Brendan Gallagher’s one-timer with four minutes to go, before the Leafs went to the power play with 3:45 left when Michael McCarron hacked Matthews to the ice with the center bearing down on what could have been his 35th goal.

But Kadri wouldn’t be denied with 2:50 left when he backhanded his 32nd over Price before Petry then scored his 12th with 40.2 seconds left in regulation.

Marleau put things to bed with his 27th on a Price mistake with 9.8 seconds still on the clock as the Canadiens limped to the finish line after topping the Atlantic with 103 points last season.

”We’re still playing the game we love,” Gallagher said. ”But the games haven’t been meaningful.

”Just never want to feel this (way) or go through this ever again.”

Down 1-0 after Matthews extended his point streak to 10 games – he now has seven goals and seven assists over that span – late in the first, the Canadiens came close when Andersen denied Gallagher twice on a power play in the second.

”He’s been unbelievable for us, probably our best player all year,” Matthews said the Leafs goalie. ”He’s kept us in games, won us games all throughout the year and been a brick wall.”

Montreal got even with 3:56 left in the second when Carr scored his sixth on a rebound.

Matthews struck on the power play with 1:55 left in the first when William Nylander wheeled down from the point, froze Price and delivered a sweet cross-ice feed for a wide-open net to get the ball rolling on a milestone night.

Now all the Leafs can do is sit and wait to find out where they’ll open the playoffs next week as the Atlantic’s No. 3 seed – either Boston or Tampa.

”We don’t know who we’re playing,” Babcock said. ”Both teams are very good hockey clubs.

”We’re in for a great test and it should be a lot of fun.”

UP NEXT:

Canadiens: Season over.

Maple Leafs: first round of the playoffs.

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More NHL hockey: Phoenix Suns general manager Ryan McDonough said the ”overwhelming likelihood” is that the team will keep its No. 1 overall pick and not trade it away.

McDonough made the comment Friday after the first of what will be many pre-draft workouts of players on the Suns’ practice court.

The leading candidates for that No. 1 almost certainly will be worked out privately, with the exception of Luka Doncic Womens Patrick Mahomes Jersey , the European sensation who still is playing in Spain.

”Obviously the agents have a lot of say,” McDonough said. ”They have a strong voice in the process. They’re worried about injuries, which we understand is part of it. So we’d love them to come in and compete against the other top guys at their position. I think for the guys in the mix at No. 1 that’s going to be tough for us to put together.”

The Suns won the lottery for the first No. 1 pick in the franchise’s 50-year history. In the days that followed, McDonough said the team would be open to trading that pick. But that seemed less likely when he described the criteria such a deal would have to entail.

”It would have to be a young, proven star player with multiple years on his contract, multiple years of team control,” McDonough said. ”Once you start whittling down the list, that list probably shrinks to a handful of players if not fewer players than that. So I think the overwhelming likelihood is that we keep the pick. However, we’re open, if those teams call us or we call them. But as of now obviously we’re planning on keeping it.”

McDonough insists there are a few players in the mix, but the names at the top according to most observers are Doncic and Arizona’s Deandre Ayton.

Born and raised in the Bahamas, the 7-foot-1 Ayton played his one college season just down Interstate 10 at the University of Arizona Womens Mike Evans Jersey , where he averaged 20.1 points and 11.6 rebounds per game.

McDonough said he believes questions about Ayton’s defense stem from the fact he had to play alongside another 7-footer, Dusan Ristic, in college.

”So he was guarding away from the basket on the perimeter,” McDonough said. ”In the NBA, obviously, he’s a center. He’s a five. He slides well. He moves his feet well. He’s a tremendous athlete in terms of strength, fluidity, coordination, all of that.”

McDonough said Ayton ”has a high-level feel for the game, especially on the offensive end of the court. And from my experience guys who have that at the offensive end of the floor usually, in time, are able to translate that to the defensive end of the court as well.”

McDonough said he plans to try to get to Europe one more time to see Doncic.

”We’ve seen him play a lot Blake Bortles Jersey Black ,” McDonough said. ”I’ve personally seen him four or five times in the last seven or eight months, (assistant general manager) Pat Connelly’s seen him. Igor’s seen him more than anybody.”

New Suns coach Igor Kokoskov coached Doncic on the Slovenian national team that won the European championship last year.

McDonough was asked about the observation that Doncic lacks high-level athleticism. But the Suns GM noted that the young European guard is ”really, really big” – 6-foot-6 and weighs 218 pounds.

”Because he’s so skilled at that size and has such a good feel, I think you don’t realize on tape how big he is,” McDonough said. ”He’s able to jab and create his own shot. He’s able to lower his shoulder and create space to overpower defenders. He’s adept at getting to the free throw line. I don’t have any concerns with him physically.”

On Friday, the Suns worked out a group of guards, most of them four-year college players. They included Tra Holder from Arizona State.

The Suns also have the No. 16 pick overall in the draft and, in the second round, Nos. 30 and 59.

But that No. 1 pick is the big one, something neither the Suns nor McDonough have dealt with before.

”I think there are some drafts that you prefer not to have the No. 1 pick just because there isn’t a player worthy of that,” he said. ”I think in some ways you’re set up to fail in that scenario. This year we feel the opposite. We feel there are four or five players who in normal drafts would be in the mix for No. 1 if not be the No. 1 pick.

”We view that as a good problem to have. It’s a really talented draft. I think this will be one that you look back on historically and say that was one of the better drafts in the last decade. And it’s great to kick it off No. 1.”

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