It's been ages (or like a couple of weeks) since I posted a long table to get you to scroll like mad on your phone. I blame this one on yesterday's Leafs birthdays which featured Matt Hunwick. So without further ado, this is Defenders I Have Known by Auston Matthews:

(Regular season GP and total TOI since 2016. If you want TOI with Matthews, you can look that up yourself.)

Player Season GP TOI
Morgan Rielly 16-26 715 16127.40
Justin Holl 17-23 285 5602.83
Tj Brodie 20-24 274 5879.54
Travis Dermott 17-22 251 3975.91
Jake McCabe 22-26 240 5129.01
Jake Gardiner 16-19 226 4928.09
Nikita Zaitsev 16-19 223 4796.95
Simon Benoit 23-26 215 3655.74
Timothy Liljegren 19-25 197 3439.17
Jake Muzzin 18-23 187 3960.35
Ron Hainsey 17-19 161 3389.91
Oliver Ekman-Larsson 24-26 155 3228.75
Mark Giordano 21-24 144 2626.80
Rasmus Sandin 19-23 140 2333.12
Roman Polak 16-18 129 2296.75
Connor Carrick 16-18 114 1805.85
Conor Timmins 22-25 101 1623.23
Chris Tanev 24-26 86 1678.90
Martin Marincin 16-20 77 1244.31
Brandon Carlo 24-26 75 1449.32
Philippe Myers 24-26 75 1151.46
Matt Hunwick 16-17 72 1294.45
Tyson Barrie 19-20 70 1531.42
Troy Stecher 25-26 58 1146.15
Cody Ceci 19-20 56 1150.30
Igor Ozhiganov 18-19 53 742.80
Ilya Lyubushkin 21-24 50 834.75
Andreas Borgman 17-18 48 657.00
Zach Bogosian 20-21 45 654.17
William Lagesson 23-24 30 435.40
Luke Schenn 22-23 15 199.50
Dakota Mermis 24-26 14 193.33
John Klingberg 23-24 14 287.72
Calle Rosen 17-20 12 170.32
Jordie Benn 22-23 12 189.62
Alexey Marchenko 16-17 11 155.58
Victor Mete 22-23 11 143.80
Erik Gustafsson (D) 22-23 9 141.78
Joel Edmundson 23-24 9 160.17
Mikko Lehtonen (D) 20-21 9 106.85
Maxime Lajoie 23-24 7 89.02
Mac Hollowell 22-23 6 77.62
Ben Hutton 20-21 4 72.12
Henry Thrun 25-26 4 59.45
Carl Dahlstrom 21-22 3 40.95
Kevin Gravel 19-20 3 33.27
Kristians Rubins 21-22 3 35.25
Marshall Rifai 23-26 3 32.99
William Villeneuve 25-26 3 51.98
Alex Biega 21-22 2 26.23
Filip Kral 22-23 2 19.92
Frank Corrado 16-17 2 28.00
Jani Hakanpaa 24-25 2 28.17
Matt Benning 25-26 1 12.43

Justin Holl is still second.

What else is going on?

I forgot to post this yesterday, but it's relevant, so:

Capitals reach two-year extension with D Liljegren
The Washington Capitals have reached a two-year contract extension with defenceman Timothy Liljegren, it was announced Wednesday. The deal is worth $6.5 million total and $3.25 million annually.
TSNTSN.ca Staff

Liljegren was traded to the Capitals at the deadline for mysterious reasons, played four games, and they did not make the playoffs so that was that. The theory here is that Rasmus Sandin needs surgery and rehab on his knee, so he won't be ready to start the season.

They also traded for David Kämpf and he played in two games, and is now UFA.

All this sort of flew under the radar, but it sure seemed weird at the time. Why they didn't just go for it and get Justin Holl too is beyond me. I'm working on something to try to look at defencemen and it's just amazing the players of no value who play 20+ minutes a game as defenders. Makes you wonder why the Leafs have spent 10 years unable to get better on defence because the bar for being not stupid about defencemen is very low.

Yesterday Canada faced their toughest challenge at Worlds.

Scheifele completes hat trick in OT as Canada edges Norway at worlds
Mark Scheifele scored his third goal of the game in overtime, and Canada narrowly avoided an upset with a 6-5 win over Norway on Thursday at the world hockey championship.
Sportsnet.caCanadian Press

This unknown Norwegian teenager was too much for them.

Unfortunately Canada tied it up with under two minutes to go, and then Norway had zero answer for a Canadian three-on-three game. TLK is only a few months older than Ivar Stenberg and Gavin McKenna, which brings home how this projecting 17, 18 and 19 year old players is really damn difficult.

This event, with 16 teams now, is dragging on as the same few good teams play against competition well below them. The next meaningful game for Canada and Sweden is on May 26.

Speaking of the teenagers, the first game of the Memorial Cup is tonight.

Memorial Cup 2026
Canadian Hockey League

Leafs prospect Matthew Hlacar is there with the Kitchener Rangers. No 2026 top draft prospects are playing.

And in the NHL, Freddy Andersen did not have the shutout stuff, and while once again the Canadiens were not very good, they scored so much so early they didn't need to be.

Final score was 6-2.

From The Branches