The Leafs California road trip will continue tonight with a stop in San Jose and a late late start time of 10:30 p.m. ET. Better plan on a pre-game nap.

We’ll have our preview of the Leafs game out later this morning.

The Marlies defeated the Syracuse Crunch 5-2 last night, jumping up the standings with a 3-2 record. Joey Anderson had a two goal performance in this game.

His second goal was an ENG and also his 100th AHL point, kindly gifted to him by Adam Gaudette.

Anderson will have to wear that cage mask for another two weeks or so. When asked if he was getting used to it, he responded “Uh [long pause] it’s OK, I guess,” which I take as “no.”

Semyon Der-Arguchintsev also had a nice goal from an impossible angle.

This was the Marlies last home game until November 19 as the Coliseum is taken over by farm animals and the Royal Winter Fair. The Marlies will head through Upstate New York, visit Quebec, Belleville, and finally Michigan.

Not quite as enjoyable a trip weatherwise as the Leafs have on the schedule visiting San Jose, Los Angeles, and Anaheim through this weekend. These should be some games from which the Leafs can walk away with wins, but the California road trip has always been full of not fun surprises for the Leafs. Well get a feel for it tonight (well, technically the game will go through until tomorrow morning in Eastern Time!)

Other News

The Leafs aren’t the only team with injury woes. The Ottawa Senators are probably going to lose one of their best, perhaps for the whole season.

The New York Islanders are trying to give away for free a first round draft pick from 2016.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Coyotes revealed the temporary dressing room accommodations for teams that are visiting their own temporary rink in Mullett Arena (yes, that’s what it’s called) at Arizona State University. People noted it looks like an elementary school gym that’s been temporarily turned into a voting centre.

Arizona Coyotes ready to begin life inside cozy confines of Mullett Arena - CBC
Auston Matthews drove by the Arizona Coyotes' new home this summer. The 5,000-seat rink tucked into a college campus is a temporary solution — for at least the next three seasons — as the franchise continues working on a proposed long-term arena.

“Youth have no one to play with:” MLSE releases report on pandemic impacts - CP24
Access to sport has improved since the early days of COVID-19 but a new report suggests that a “lack of social ties” post-pandemic is creating “a very significant and growing barrier” to participation for some Ontario youth.