The Toronto Maple Leafs play the Seattle Kraken tonight.
At least, I am pretty sure that the Toronto Maple Leafs play the Kraken tonight, but I’ve been distracted by the Shohei Ohtani news.
Specifically, that the Toronto Blue Jays are one of the final teams in the bidding for his services, and that an announcement could come down any minute.
So as I fresh and re-fresh over and over, the game preview keeps getting further and further out of reach.
Toronto Maple Leafs Game Preview Delayed by Shohei Ohtani Watch
Can the MLB’s only Canadian team land the best player in the game, and one of the best to ever have lived?
SOURCE: it appears the Shohei Ohtani market has come down to the #Dodgers, #Cubs, and #BlueJays. It's unsure where the Angels are in all of this but it is getting close to Ohtani making his decision.
— Brendan Panikkar (@Panikkar37) November 30, 2023
This would be bigger than when the Toronto Maple Leafs drafted Auston Matthews. This would be the biggest thing to ever happen in Toronto Sports, outside of the Raptors and Jays Championships.
As you are probably well aware of, the Toronto Maple Leafs have basically never won the Stanley Cup. At least not one where there more than six teams in the league.
Getting Ohtani would be like if the Leafs landed Connor McDavid. Its crazy to even think about. I doubt it will happen, but who knows? It’s a fun idea, and I’m definitely going to be disappointed if it doesn’t.
Either way, this is probably a good sign for the direction of the Blue Jays.
As for the Leafs? I don’t know.
This Ohtani stuff really distracts you from the possibility that they’re dressing one of the worst blue-lines in NHL history tonight.
T.J Brodie, struggling a lot lately, will play on the right side of the top pairing. Next up will be William Lagesson (who has played well, but come on) and Jake McCabe who has been OK since coming back from injury but was essentially unplayable before that.
The third pairing will feature Simon Benoit and Connor Timmins. I do not expect it to go well.
There really is no excuse to dress a blue-line this bad, even in a cap era. I realize that injuries happen, but there was no depth to start the year, and there was never a physical component to the blue-line, and there was always a chance that Brodie and McCabe would decline.
Joseph Woll gets the start tonight vs the Kraken, and the Leafs will hope to do better than their last game, which was awful, even if they did win. Let’s go Blue Jays!