Yesterday all of the Maple Leafs arrived in Tampa by early evening, we'll have more later on who is healthy, who is playing and who isn't, but everyone is on hand.

The full version of Insider Trading had a little more clarity on the Leafs and their plans than the early version had time for.

- TSN
TSN’s Hockey Insiders on the Leaf captain’s status, interest in Elias Pettersson and Evander Kane, the Leafs and Bobby McMann/Scott Laughton, how the Brett Kulak deal frees up space for the Avs, the latest on the Flames, and the IIHF and 3-on-3 OT.
TSN

What's going on here is the Leafs are positioning themselves publicly regarding their UFAs – Bobby McMann and Scott Laughton, primarily. They want to re-sign these players, which is obvious, why wouldn't they? But they won't do it for any price. So the message to other teams is make an offer for a trade that the Leafs can't turn down, and to the players to take a deal that will make the Leafs willing to turn down trades.

One way or another this will get resolved by March 6.

And yes, there is talk going on about what will happen if the team comes out hot and closes the gap on a playoff spot. They are actually tied with Ottawa for fourth in the wild card race right now by points percentage. And yes, you bet, this is a long shot. It's not really a plausible outcome, but someone has to take those two spots, so there is another race on here too – who is going to admit they can't do it first? Which is the best race to be in, and do you really get a choice in the matter now is the question in front of the Leafs.

I don't think that really matters what their answer is. They wouldn't be adding players even if they were closer. They aren't trading away the full team either. They're trying to do something a lot more difficutl.

For other teams, they have their internal decisions and plans, and then they have what they'll admit to publicly, and that's going to change over the next few days.

There was one trade yesterday involving NHL-level players.

Colorado didn't get a net gain of cap space there for no reason.

Olympic hockey got good TV ratings, but be careful how you compare numbers, lest you turn into one of those people who mislead by comparing unemployment stats calculated differently in different countries.

CBC says:

8.7 million Canadians watched end of men's Olympic gold-medal hockey game

[I]t's an apparent decline from Sochi 2014, the last time Canada's men's hockey team made it to the gold-medal matchup, when CBC said 15 million Canadians tuned in to some portion of the game and average viewership hovered at 8.5 million.
CBC didn't say how many people watched this year's game in total, or what the average viewership throughout the game was: only that 8.7 million were tuned in for the final goal, a number that doesn't include those streaming on Gem, a spokesperson said.

This does include the broadcast on SN, TSN and RDS but the article is unclear if that includes their streaming and smart TV apps as well.

NBC says:

NEARLY 21 MILLION VIEWERS WATCHED NBCUNIVERSAL’S COVERAGE OF USA-CANADA OLYMPIC MEN’S GOLD MEDAL HOCKEY GAME, PEAKING AT 26 MILLION FOR GAME-WINNING GOAL ON NBC & PEACOCK
Team USA’s 2-1 OT Win Averaged a Combined 20.7 Million Viewers and 18.6 Million Live (8:15-11 a.m. ET) on NBC & Peacock, Marking the Most-Watched Pre-9 a.m. ET Sporting Event on Record in U.S.
NBC Sports
The USA-Canada gold-medal game delivered an average live audience of 18.6 million viewers on NBC and Peacock (8:15-11 a.m. ET), which:
Marks the most-watched pre-9 a.m. ET (start time) sporting event on record in U.S. history.
Ranks as NBC Sports’ second-most watched hockey game ever, behind only the USA-Canada men’s gold medal game at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, which had a more favorable puck drop time of 3:15 p.m. ET (27.6 million viewers).
Includes NBC Sports’ most-watched streaming audience (excluding NFL), with an average of 3.7 million viewers, led by Peacock.

That's a lot of people, and the success of hockey in the USA is where the growth in the salary cap is going to come from. This will make the league happy and make it more likely that we'll get Olympic hockey with NHLers again.

And now that's officially over. One last take on the way it all ended:

(The author of this column used to be with the Washington Post which I find very much of "these days".)

I keep coming back around to this: I wanted Canada to win. Or if not, then Sweden. But then Auston Matthews did, and I want him to be able to enjoy the greatest achievement of his life, one he's worked for since he was a child. Not just for him, but for all the amazing moments we've all had as his fans. I still remember vividly watching him fade into the play and fire off a shot as a teenager in Switzerland and how amazing that was. Like watching Celebrini was. And then indeed, they lost the room.

Everyone is poorer for it, these days.

Now, it really is over. Enough please.

Is this a clue that Dakota Joshua will be playing?

We'll see what morning skate brings us in news. Remember those? It's supposed to be what we're here for.

From The Branches