The four-day break is officially over.
The Leafs are in Philadelphia for the first of two meetings with the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center in the next five days. No John Tortorella for this one. The much-maligned head coach will be serving the second and final game of his two-game suspension for his antics in Tampa last Saturday night.
Carter Hutton filled in for Jay Rosehill on the Thursday edition of Leafs Morning Take. We kicked off the show by discussing the dust up at Red Wings practice on Wednesday. Detroit’s lost six in a row, and all of sudden, they’re in jeopardy of missing the postseason. Elsewhere, Hutts reacted to the almost goalie fight in Chicago on Tuesday between Petr Mrazek and John Gibson. Speaking of Mrazek, funny enough, Hutts fought him in the AHL back in the day. We played that tilt at the end of the show.
Presented by Door Dash, The Appetizer focused on the two year, $2.7-million extension that the Leafs handed Bobby McMann. The 27-year-old, who was slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, has tallied 10 goals and 18 points in 40 outings so far this season. He’s been quite the revelation for Sheldon Keefe.
Meantime, brought to you by the Wendy’s Daily Faceoff Survivor, we previewed the Leafs/Flyers game. Ilya Samsonov will start. Mitch Marner will miss his second straight game with a lower body injury. Toronto’s won 11 of 14 since Morgan Rielly was suspended.
Then, for our weekly Great Clips segment, we were asked about the Leafs potentially looking to re-sign Ilya Samsonov. At this point, we both feel like the writing is on the well for the 27-year-old Russian netminder. Anything can happen but it seems likely that Toronto will move on from him this summer.
Courtesy of Tim Hortons, we had a chance to spend some time with Leafs blue liner Ilya Lyubushkin. Boosh and Hutts played with each other in Arizona. It was a lot of fun to catch up with him and get his thoughts on being traded back to the Maple Leafs.
Jay Rosehill will be back for the Friday edition of Leafs Morning Take. In addition to recapping the Leafs/Flyers game, we’ll look ahead to Saturday night’s tilt at Scotiabank Arena with the red-hot Carolina Hurricanes. Toronto will wear its St. Patrick’s Day kits.
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