Toronto Maple Leafs open camp with optimism despite injuries

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The first deletions from a massive Maple Leafs training camp roster came during medicals on Wednesday morning.

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After new team captain Auston Matthews and the leadership group spoke, and as team president Brendan Shanahan and coach Craig Berube opined about reversing playoff fortunes and proposed camp forward lines, general manager Brad Treliving passed on some unfortunate injury news.

Centre Fraser Minten, who made the team at the start of last year and was doing so well in rookie camp playing with Easton Cowan, will be out a number of weeks with a high ankle sprain suffered in the weekend rookie series in Montreal.

Defenceman Ben Danford, this year’s first-round pick, has been diagnosed with a concussion after a hard hit into the boards in a rookie practice last week.

Fourth-line forward Connor Dewar hoped to be close to ready for the start of camp, but still is recovering from off-season shoulder surgery while, as expected, defenceman Jani Hakanpaa is taking it easy with a lingering knee issue and will not begin with the two practice groups of NHL-calibre skaters on Thursday, instead starting with a third unit of development players.

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Also out are draft-pick forward Ryan Tverberg (shoulder surgery) and two American Hockey Leaguers, Robert Mastrosimone (shoulder) and defenceman Jacob Bengtsson (groin).

The Leafs had invited 42 forwards, 26 defencemen and seven goalies to the Ford Centre, with the first exhibition game Sunday at Scotiabank Arena against the Ottawa Senators.

Berube, who comes with an authoritarian reputation born of a long NHL career as a fighter and Stanley Cup-winning coach in St. Louis and won’t be as lenient as Sheldon Keefe in cracking the whip, said he won’t browbeat anyone — at least right away.

“Everybody has to be held accountable, including me. It starts with me. But you can control two things as a player, your work and your compete (level). If players aren’t working they aren’t competing and that’s unacceptable in my opinion.

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“Mistakes happen, (dependent) on what happened at the time. But to me the biggest thing is when the players start holding each other accountable in the room. That’s when you know you have something.”

Matthews has more of that responsibility as he replaces John Tavares as team captain, but says he won’t be outwardly different in his day-to-day role.

“I’ve been put in this role because of who I am, It’s the evolution of myself as a player and a person. There isn’t stuff I’ll completely change,” Matthews said.

“Craig’s been great. I’ve spent some time with him, getting to know him. His presence and his pedigree speaks for itself.”

Matthews likely will be centring Mitch Marner and Matthew Knies by opening night next month, while Berube revealed the second line at camp has William Nylander at centre versus right wing and potential centre Max Domi on his left side.

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“Things change, we all know that, but with (Nylander’s) skill set, he can be a great transporter of the puck to the offensive zone — he’s strong, big and skilled. Any time you get someone like that in the middle of the ice, it’s a very important piece,” Berube said.

Marner and Treliving opened their remarks by saying the former’s contract extension talks are a taboo subject, but of course there’s a lot of people wondering how the Marner-Berube dynamic plays out, especially by the time playoffs roll around, where Marner has struggled with physicality and loss of production.

“That’s in the past,” Berube insisted. “I’m new here, been around Mitch a bunch (this summer). He’s a great two-way player. He’s been up for the Selke Trophy, puts up big (regular-season) numbers every year.

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“It’s about building up to the playoffs, but we’re not there yet, I’m not going to focus on that. I’m focused on camp, instilling the work ethic, the battle that’s needed at camp.

“Mitch is a huge part of this team and I’m looking forward to coaching him.”

Treliving, who also put a new deal for Tavares on the backburner, reminded that it’s a seven-month grind to get to another chance for a playoff run.

“After today, it’s about getting better every day, not being worried about winning the Cup. You can’t do that Sept. 18, we have to be process-driven. I know it sounds like a cliche, but if you take care of those details, you’ll get where you eventually want to go,” R

“What gives me hope is that we’ve improved our roster. You don’t hit grand slams every day, sometimes it’s singles and doubles and picking away at your roster. Getting better isn’t because you air-lifted in a bunch of new people (defencemen Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Hakanpaa, forwards Max Pacioretty and goalie Anthony Stolarz are the headliners). Internal growth is the best way to get better, not flying in the great free agent or making 10 trades.

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“We’ve got young players coming in (last year’s first-round forward Cowan might make the team at wing), I think we’ve upgraded our defence. We have to upgrade our penalty kill (bottom third in the NHL last year), find a way to be better on power play in playoffs (than 1-for-21 in a first-round loss to Boston).

“We were second in goals for and lost 21 in (the departed) Tyler Bertuzzi. I look at our roster and think we can replace those, not necessarily by one person.

“We can shoot it in the net (Matthews is the Rocket Richard Trophy winner), but for us it’s keeping it out. We have to check better. That’s not taking away from our players what they do very well, but those are the things that I’m excited about. And having Joseph Woll take another step (in net) and having Stolarz here and have Matt Murray compete.”

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