Daily Faceoff

1 day ago | dailyfaceoff.com | Matt Larkin

The Ottawa Senators did everything right in the second period. So much that it should’ve been enough to win them Game 2. They outhustled the Toronto Maple Leafs, outhit them, hemmed them into their zone, outshot them 13-3. But they could only cut a 2-0 Toronto lead to 2-1 on a fortunate bounce when Brady Tkachuk’s between-the-legs pass caromed off Brandon Carlo and in. The Sens deserved a lot more, but Anthony Stolarz snatched the period from them.

2 days ago | dailyfaceoff.com | Matt Larkin

Did you expect anything different, Edmonton Oilers? You’ve been tall enough to ride this rollercoaster for years now. You know what Stuart Skinner is. And that means understanding you can’t predict what he’ll do on any given shot, in any given minute, period, game, week, month or year. Phillip Danault’s knuckleball winner in the third period of Monday’s Game 1, after the Oilers had rallied from a 4-0 deficit and tied the Los Angeles Kings 5-5, was a killer.

2 days ago | dailyfaceoff.com | Matt Larkin

Tuesday in London, Ont., five members of Canada’s 2018 World Junior Championship team will go on trial for sexual assault charges. Jury selection is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, per TSN’s Rick Westhead, and the trial is expected to last up to eight weeks. Accused of sexually assaulting the complainant, known to the public as ‘E.M.,’ in 2018 are:– Michael McLeod, charged with two counts of sexual assault, including one for aiding others in committing a sexual assault.

3 days ago | dailyfaceoff.com | Jeff Marek

As the coaching carousel got wound up this weekend with the firings of Peter Laviolette in New York along with Anaheim Ducks bench boss Greg Cronin, I would like to remind everybody of a sobering fact: in the history of the NHL, which stretches back to 1917, there have only been three head coaches who led two different teams to Stanley Cup victories.

3 days ago | dailyfaceoff.com | Matt Larkin

Whether you were the most blindly faithful Toronto Maple Leafs fan or the franchise’s most gleeful hater, most of us would’ve agreed this Leafs team at least looked different going into the playoffs. For better or worse, they weren’t built exactly the same as the clubs that had delivered so many crushing playoff disappointments in the first eight years of the Auston Matthews / Mitch Marner era. The 2024-25 club skewed toward brawn over finesse, tipping the scales as the NHL’s largest.