FTB: Maple Leafs start western road trip with a win

It was worth the wait! The Maple Leafs defeated the Canucks 4-1 last night in a game that might have started past your bed time in Toronto.

Morgan Rielly on Frederik Andersen: “I think he’s one of the best goalies in the league. Moving forward I think we’ll try to limit the breakaways *nervous laughter* but he was great.”

— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) December 11, 2019

While Freddie was great, a special thanks goes to Hardev who stayed up until almost 1:00 a.m. to recap the game for us!

Related

John Tavares, Freddy Andersen go off in 4-1 Maple Leafs win over Vancouver Canucks

The Leafs next game is Thursday against the Flames with a more reasonable 9:00 p.m. ET start. The Flames are on a six game win streak right now.

The Marlies are in Utica tonight for some delicious steamed hams to play the Canucks AHL affiliates, the Comets. Let’s hope for a big win there too.

Other News

LOLOILERS! Dougie Hamilton is at centre ice here and scores on Mikko Koskinen. My favourite part is the shot they cut to of all the fans getting up and leaving. Maybe though they were getting a head start on the queue for the Rogers Place bathroom.

I think Dougie Hamilton just "scoreboard"-ed an Oilers fan. pic.twitter.com/58VpQ4XYyQ

— Brett Finger (@brett_finger) December 11, 2019

The Board of Governors met yesterday and some news came out of that.

Commissioner wouldn't be pinned down on a cap number -- said that will be negotiated with players (he's referring to their right to inflate the ceiling by up to 5 per cent). Current number is $81.5M, there is belief it could get to 84-85 depending on future conversations

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) December 10, 2019

Take that projection with a grain of salt. We all remember what happened last season where at the last minute they yanked back two million on the proposed increase. Still, there is some hope that salary cap inflation could help to quickly get the Leafs out of their current bind.

World Cup for Feb 2021 is off...not enough time to get it done. Commissioner still wants one, but won’t be then

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) December 10, 2019

That figures. I finally found my Team North America hoodie at the back of the closet yesterday!

No milk crates were harmed in this latest Tuuka Rask meltdown at a Bruins practice.

Tuukka Rask is VERY MAD at practice you guys pic.twitter.com/LGu2N8fnn6

— RMNB (@russianmachine) December 10, 2019

Stars Fire Jim Montgomery, Citing “Unprofessional Conduct” - Defending Big D
[SPECIES: This is from our network site for the Stars, but, like everyone, they also don't have any additional information on exactly what happened or when that was so serious it lead the Stars to fire Montgomery on the spot.]