This article covers the Hellebuyck soap opera.

Sources: Connor Hellebuyck suspension ends Friday
Connor Hellebuyck's suspension will come to an end on Friday. Elliotte Friedman has the story.
Sportsnet.caElliotte Friedman

To make it clear, hopefully, what this all means is that all the internet speculation about the CBA, suspensions, what the league thinks, etc., has already occurred.

None of this is in the future, because it's been done already. Now the Jets have to decide what to do on Friday, and if no trade is forthcoming, Elliotte Friedman has said (before last night) that they may simply pay him and tell him to stay home.

This has happened at least once in my recollection when the Leafs took Raffi Torres as the contract coming back in a trade. They had no interest in having him on their team or in the AHL, and they just told him not to report.

In Marlies news:

They won in OT on a goal by Brandon Brisson, who has been putting up a lot of points.

In the second intermission on not-HNIC last night, there was discussion of what Toronto is up to. Elliotte Friedman relayed what Toronto is telling other teams:

Toronto says they will pay a premium asset for a difference-maker on the blueline. They won't move A assets for a B player. They will consider moving an older player for a younger one.

(Wouldn't everyone do that last thing if it met the first two criteria?)

Anyhow, that's only to be expected, and it's all easy to say and hard to do.

As for the game, Auston Matthews couldn't win his matchup. Hiller played the lines in a fairly balanced way, giving the non-gifted grinders lots of time to not score. Kirill Marchenko played very little at five-on-five, and there was one truly bizarre moment where Gavin McKenna was put on the fourth line (not a terrible idea to get a scoring chance) and then put out for a d-zone draw. McKenna and Marchenko led the team in Expected Goals.

The Leafs were not bad! They won the day in Expected Goals, were competitive in Corsi, had very high quality of shots and managed to get one goal. It happens. But this is not the time to post the deserve-to-win thingy and say "shit happens" because there were really good reasons why they weren't dominating in goals.

The lineup that was perfectly static and gradually figuring each other out has been thrown into chaos by injuries and by all the areas where it's just not working well. I'm not sure Hiller is handling this excellently, but it's a genuine conundrum given the current roster.

But again: Auston Matthews lost his matchup. That's the key point to a loss against a team that's just okay. Final score was 4-1 Islanders.

From The Branches