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Nick Ritchie has made a constructive first impression on Auston Matthews.
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So has Spencer Carbery.
After signing with the Maple Leafs in July, Ritchie is the apparent candidate to play on the highest line with Matthews and Mitch Marner.
“(The chemistry) has been good within the couple of drills now we have had collectively,” Matthews mentioned of Ritchie. “He’s a extremely massive boy, however he could make performs — forehand, backhand with guys on him. He’s such an enormous physique that it’s exhausting to take the puck away from him and he has good imaginative and prescient.
“He’s a simple man to play with and you realize that he’s going to be on the internet and he’s going to attempt to get open. We need to proceed to construct that chemistry, get extra reps collectively so we get via that feeling-out course of.”
Carbery, added to the teaching workers through the summer season, is working the facility play. The Leafs had been sixteenth with man-advantage final season.
“He has numerous ardour and numerous bounce to him,” Matthews mentioned. I like that. He’s achieved a reasonably good job of explaining (what he needs) after which we simply let our ability take over with the construction that he has put in place. It was a pleasant to get the the total group collectively (Monday) and run via some stuff.”
