» LEAFS NOTES: Berube expects ‘another level’ from Calle Jarnkrok

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For another practice at least, Calle Jarnkrok was in the Maple Leafs’ top six.

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Whether Jarnkrok should be on a line with centre John Tavares and William Nylander for the longer term is debatable, but what matters most is that Leafs coach Craig Berube is fine with using the veteran winger there when he sees fit.

Against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, Jarnkrok got the promotion and Bobby McMann was dropped to the third line with Max Domi and Nick Robertson.
Berube stayed with that setup on Friday at the Ford Performance Centre as the Leafs prepared to play host to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena.

“He’s working extremely hard and he’s doing a lot of good things that might go unnoticed to the viewer or to a lot of people,” Berube said of Jarnkrok. “He does a lot of little things right, night in and night out. He’s still working to get his feet going under him. He gets going for a bit and then there’s a little bit of a setback, maybe, but he’s working his way through it.

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“I do expect him to get to another level, yet.”

In 15 games since returning from groin/sports hernia surgery, Jarnkrok has one goal and four assists. For him to have a permanent spot in the top six — and we don’t think he really belongs there — there has to be an uptick in his offensive production.
At worst, Berube knows McMann and his 20 goals slot in well with Tavares and Nylander and he can go back to that at any time.

NICE AND SHINY

McMann looked like a hockey player on Friday. Something out of the 1970s, perhaps.

He was sporting a shiner around his left eye following his fight with Tampa’s Brayden Point during the third period of Toronto’s overtime victory.

“I wasn’t really expecting him to drop them like that,” McMann said. “Once he did, I was ready for it, and then the refs came in. That’s just the heat of the game.”

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McMann, who fought for just the second time in his National Hockey League career, became the 13th Leafs player to fight this season.

Never mind the scraps, however, Berube is satisfied with the heaviness of his team’s play as the Stanley Cup playoffs loom.

“It has been good for the most part,” Berube said. “You have games where it’s not as good as it needs to be. I look at that Tampa game and the competitiveness we played with on a back-to-back night against a good team, and the puck battles and the physicality that we needed to play with to get out of there with two points.

“I didn’t like it in the Florida game (a 3-1 loss to the Panthers the night before). I didn’t think we did it well enough, and that was the difference in the game. But they responded and did it the next night.

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“We’ve been pretty consistent with our physicality all year. It’s not just taking the body on a guy. It’s being hard at your net-front, boxing out, puck battles and blocking shots.”

PULLING FOR MITCH

Mitch Marner is on that doorstep, again.

The Leafs’ best winger goes into Saturday night with 97 points, three shy of recording his first 100-point season in the NHL.

No matter how he finishes, the 2024-25 season will mark the fifth time in his nine seasons that Marner has compiled at least 94 points. He reached 99 two years ago, has twice ended with 97, and had 94 points in 2018-19.

Marner would record just the seventh 100-point season in Leafs history and become the fourth Toronto player to hit the milestone. Doug Gilmour, whose 127 points in 1992-93 is the franchise record, Darryl Sittler and Auston Matthews have each reached 100 points twice.

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“Whenever you have a chance as a team to have a player accomplish something like that, I don’t want to say it’s important, but it’s nice,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said. “You want to help him out. He’s going to put the team first, and he’s going to play his game.

“We’re going to focus on the games and the points that are at stake, and the rest will take care of itself. You’re rooting for him and you want to see him get it done.”

In 37 career games against the Canadiens, Marner has 38 points (seven goals and 31 assists).
Injured defenceman Jani Hakanpaa was asked about the possible Marner milestone and expanded on the Leafs’ other elite players, including Matthews and William Nylander.

“With him and the other guys too, you know they’re good when you play against them, and then you see them every day, and you’re like: ‘OK, they’re even better than you thought they would be’,” Hakanpaa said.

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“You look at them closely, playing the right way all the time and still putting up that amount of points. It’s really spectacular. It’s an honour just to watch them every day.”

LOOSE LEAFS

Rielly on his one-game career-high seven blocks against Tampa: “Just circumstances, it happens. It’s not anything special. It’s just the way the game goes.” Rielly’s previous high in his NHL career was six blocks, done four times. The Leafs’ 33 blocks set a franchise record for one game … Does Hakanpaa, whose participation has been limited to two games in November, think he could play in the playoffs? “It has been trending really good in the gym, out on the ice, off-ice, everything,” Hakanpaa said. “Hopefully we get there, we’ll see.”

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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