Sports

Come on in, Leafs and Raptors will have full capacity

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The Maple Leafs’ first full season since 2018-19 will embody a full home at Scotiabank Area.

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An announcement by the Ontario authorities on Friday, lifting remaining COVID-19 restrictions at main sporting venues and in a variety of leisure venues equivalent to live shows and film theatres, means Scotiabank Area can transfer in direction of its approximate 19,000 restrict for hockey.

The Leafs have their last exhibition recreation Saturday towards the Ottawa Senators, however the full power may very well be in place by Wednesday’s common season opener of the 82-game schedule towards the Montreal Canadiens.

Pre-season crowds had been capped at 9,500, although followers will nonetheless have to point out proof of double vaccination to get in. Masking and bodily distancing are additionally nonetheless required, however the latter shall be troublesome if the home is packed.

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“All through the method of re-opening our venues to followers, which included working carefully with the Province over many months, well being and security has been our shared high precedence,” Michael Friisdahl, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports activities and Leisure, mentioned in a launch. “We’re overjoyed to see at the present time arrive once we are capable of welcome a full venue to cheer on the Leafs and Raptors. We’re grateful to all ranges of presidency for his or her partnership on this course of and acknowledge there’ll proceed to be a lot work to do collectively to make sure the most secure setting attainable for each occasion attendee and our neighborhood.”

NO RUSH FOR AUSTON

Head coach Sheldon Keefe is already calling Auston Matthews “day-to-day” for subsequent week approaching the Montreal recreation. Matthews positively gained’t play Saturday, as all precautions are taken together with his surgically repaired wrist, regardless of what appears to be full vary in taking pictures and passing the previous few days.

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“It’s a mixture of permitting it to strengthen up a bit to the purpose the place’s he capable of go in and play towards an unfriendly opponent,” Keefe mentioned Friday. “He’s competing very arduous in our practices and guys are going arduous towards him, however it’s not the identical.

“The opposite a part of it’s, quite a lot of our guys have been at (full contact) a number of weeks now and so have the opponents. So we may give him a bit of extra time to rise up to hurry.”

ROOTIN’ FOR RUBINS

Kristians Rubins, the 6-foot-5 defenceman now with the Marlies, was designated one in every of Latvia’s first three gamers to its Olympic crew on Friday. He joins Zemgus Girgensons (Buffalo) and Rudolfs Balcers (San Jose). The stay-at-home Rubins has 85 video games of AHL expertise.

“Terrific recognition for him, he’s labored actually arduous and I assumed he had a extremely good camp,” mentioned Keefe. “His final recreation Tuesday evening (a win over the Canadiens), he did a very nice job and I do know he did an excellent job for Latvia within the qualifiers.”

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LOOSE LEAFS

Veteran winger Jason Spezza, on why groups equivalent to Toronto want two established goalies, in Jack Campbell and Petr Mrazek: “It speaks to the aggressive steadiness of the league. You had your lesser groups, enlargement groups (versus) groups a bit of extra certain of a win. You’d play your backup towards them and the lead man would play 65 or had Marty Brodeur enjoying 75-plus. These days are type of gone, it’s so robust each evening. The crew in thirty second can beat the crew in first. That exhibits why you want a goalie to be recent and never experience a man too lengthy” … Alex Steeves, the Notre Dame free agent ahead who had such a superb rookie improvement camp earlier than injuring his shoulder, has resumed practising with the Marlies. The farm crew opens its exhibition schedule Saturday in Laval … Wednesday will mark the primary time since 1964 that Toronto begins the 12 months towards its most up-to-date spring playoff opponent. After beating Detroit for the Stanley Cup that 12 months, the Leafs topped the Wings 5-3 on the Olympia to open the 1964-65 schedule.

lhornby@postmedia.com

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