For the second time this season, the Leafs are set to visit Sheldon Keefe’s New Jersey Devils.
The storylines write themselves.
At any rate, we kicked off the Tuesday edition of Leafs Morning Take on a lighter note as we dissect Ross Atkins’ comments from Monday afternoon at the MLB Winter Meetings in Dallas. In case you missed, the Blue Jays general manager said the Blue Jays were “grateful to be a part of the Juan Soto” process. Hilarious, right? Imagine Brad Treliving pulled a stunt like that? People would be calling for his head. Anyways, weirdly, our conversation someone morphed into one about Brendan Shanahan. He spoke to TSN’s Gino Reda on Monday in Palm Beach at the Board of Governors meetings, and quite frankly, he said absolutely nothing. Rosey and I got into a spirited debate about Shanahan’s tenure and what really expect him to say whenever he talks to the media.
After that, we offered up a Leafs/Devils preview. Back on October 10th, Toronto waltzed into Prudential Center and grabbed a 4-2 win. The Leafs have lost back-to-back games, and the Devils have been struggling on home ice, this should be a good one. Meantime, we talked about Max Domi’s potential return to the lineup. Furthermore, we both agreed that we would like to see him on a line with Fraser Minten —at least to start. Also, we weighed in on the crease and how we feel Craig Berube should deploy his goalies this week. Just flip flop them —keep it simple.
Meantime, brought to you by Charm Diamond Centres, Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe dropped by the show. We got his thoughts on tonight’s game, how weird it is to square off against his former team, and how life in New Jersey is going thus far. Also, he gave some awesome insight into Matthew Knies and Fraser Minten, and how much of a fan he is of both guys. Also, I asked him about the potential of Jack Hughes and Auston Matthews playing together at the Four Nations. Can’t thank Sheldon enough for dropping by!
Join us on Wednesday at 11 AM ET for a full recap of Leafs/Devils. Also, former Devil and current NHL Network analyst Mike Rupp will drop by for a chat.
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