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LEAFS LOCKER
The way his team has rocked lately, Randy Carlyle’s only headache will be fitting a gradual return of healthy Leafs back in the lineup and deciding who must sit or go back to the Marlies.
While general manager David Nonis said Thursday that winger David Clarkson remains a week away from returning from the disabled list with an elbow injury, fourth-line winger Frazer McLaren could re-join the Leafs by Friday in Winnipeg, at least for practice.
And Carlyle wanted to make sure that Trevor Smith has not been forgotten, the Marlie captain who was supplying some timely goals before breaking his hand in mid-December. He’s expected to re-join the team in Toronto on Monday. Dave Bolland skated hard in Toronto during the road trip, continuing to try and find a comfort level after major ankle tendon surgery before re-joining practices.
Call it payback
Carlyle listened intently to a question on how much his first line’s output had meant to the six-game winning streak, 25 points for Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk, before getting off a zinger.
“Check the size of their pay cheques,” he said. “Aren’t they supposed to do that? The reality of it is they’re paid to provide offence and they’re doing their job.”
Bozak’s return from a 12-game injury absence has helped light the fire under Kessel and in turn, van Riemsdyk, who had started to cool.
“Bozie doesn’t get the accolades that go along with JVR and Kessel,” Carlyle said. “But one area where he’s normally strong is in the faceoff circle and he hasn’t been (47.4% before Thursday). We’ve asked him to pay some attention to it. That line, starting with the puck more often, will give us more of an opportunity.”
Source of the streak
On paper, a 3-2 shootout win over New Jersey started Toronto’s winning streak two weeks ago, but Carlyle said the seeds were sown during a couple of tough defeats.
“We played better in some situations and didn’t get the results,” he said. “The game I thought we started to play better was against the Islanders at home (Jan. 7, a 5-3 loss). We felt we were a better team than the score. The bounces weren’t going for us. Three goals went in off our players. That one from centre, that Calvin De Haan kid, hits a shaft 60 feet from centre and goes top shelf. What else can you do but roll your eyes and stay as positive as you can?
“We played a decent two periods in Carolina after a terrible start and then played well in Washington, but still lost. That’s when we saw some light at the end of the tunnel — if we stayed with it and got our offence going.”
home for a star
Raw Russian Valeri Nichushkin has quickly worked his way into the hearts of hockey fans in the Lone Star State and with one Dallas family in particular.
Paul and Sandra Fletcher, friends of Stars president Jim Lites, had offered to let a rookie stay with them, once their teenaged daughters had moved out.
“We don’t need a hormonal teenage boy in the house,” Paul Fletcher told hockey writer Dave Lozo, though it worked out fine for 11-year-old rink-rat son P.J.
“My son has always been asking for a brother and my wife and I are done having kids. I always joked ‘the only way you’re going to get a brother is he tries out (for the Stars) and he’s from Russia or Canada. Sure enough, we not only get a Russian, we get a good hockey player who makes the NHL.”
With the Fletchers’ help, the 22-point winger has adjusted to life in Big D and has now moved into his own apartment.
Loose Leafs
Dallas defenceman Sergei Gonchar, now with his fifth team, had a summer home in Toronto about 10 years ago. He used it as a training base with a variety of NHLers in the area and was a guest at late-summer Leaf workouts. He hinted he’d been open to the idea of being a Leaf, through trade or free agency. “It’s a nice city, a great hockey town, I have a lot of friends there, but it didn’t work out,” Gonchar said ... The Leafs missed Dallas Cowboy quarterback Tony Romo’s first ever visit to a Stars game earlier this week. The team gave him one of their sweaters with his name ... The NHL reviewed video from Tuesday’s Leaf win over Colorado and has now returned the second-period goal to Jake Gardiner after changing it to Nazem Kadri. The goal is now Gardiner from Joffrey Lupul and Troy Bodie.
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