No rest for the Maple Leafs – NHL rescheduled nine games for February

NEW YORK – That big February gap in the schedule – originally created for NHL participation in the Winter Olympics – is being filled.

And the Maple Leafs who were looking forward to a little vacation, or extended family time, would rather play hockey.

The nine games postponed due to the pandemic and crowd restrictions have been rescheduled with no season extension required.

For the Leafs, the changes begin Jan. 31 at home in New Jersey, a game postponed this week as part of a league-wide rescheduling of more than 100 games released Wednesday.

“I’m glad they rescheduled to give us a chance to hopefully have fans in the building at home,” said defender TJ Brodie. “It’s exciting to get an entire season and feel a little bit back to normal.”

As things stand, Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment may not yet house fans at Scotiabank Arena, although they hope restrictions will be lifted soon. The province is undergoing a “phased and phased” approach to reopening.

The Leafs will get off for a while for the all-star break with games resuming against February 7 against Carolina. Then the Leafs will travel to the Western road trip through Calgary (Feb. 10), Vancouver (Feb. 12) and Seattle (Feb. 14). Then it’s home to Pittsburgh on Feb. 17 and St. Louis on February 19, followed by another three-game road trip to Montreal (February 21), Columbus (February 22) and Detroit (February 26). That game that should have been in Toronto, but the Leafs and the Wings exchanged home dates, with the Wings now coming to Toronto on April 26th.

For the players, they now only have a few days off for the all-star break, but have been looking at more than two weeks. So what could have been?

“We originally planned – like last summer – to have a full family vacation,” Brodie said. “Of course nothing was concrete. We know there are a lot of variables and things that can happen, so I was not really excited about it. And when I now saw what had happened, I was so glad that I did not (get too excited). “

Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said he was almost a last-minute planner. Still, having so much time off in the middle of the season would have been a pleasure.

“I had no plans specifically, except that we would probably have ended up somewhere hot for some time,” Keefe said. But with two young kids in school and in hockey, all that kind of stuff, we did not make too many plans.

“Also for any of these types of breaks that come in the schedule, whether it is stars or a bee week, whatever it is, in junior or in the AHL, I have always been a last minute planner. Just because you never know what’s coming. You do not know what is going on with the team. You do not know what the situation is, even with the rest of our coaching staff.

“I think when you are a coach, you have to stay flexible and you can not decide on any kind of plans, because you always react to the team and the circumstances around your group. So I had nothing definite, except to spend quality time with family. ”

Mitch Marner, on the other hand, was hoping he would be on Canada’s Olympic team.

“I did not plan on a vacation,” Marner said. “I was hoping to maybe try to crack that roster, to get a chance for it. So I did not want to make bad mojo myself and start planning holidays or something like that. The goal was to try to be in China and be part of that team. But of course things change. ”

Have ever done this.

“We’ll see what happens,” says Marner. “We have a certain timeline and we have to fill all those matches. But there is nothing we can really do or change right now. I’m sure there will be some scenarios of many games and not many days. So we have to make sure when that happens, that we take care of ourselves and try to stay healthy. ”