At 1:41 am on Thursday, the Bay Area was shook by a 4.6 magnitude earthquake.
“Woke me up and then I thought the whole place was coming down,” said Leafs winger Steven Lorentz with a grin. “I don’t want to say it’s ‘cool’ because it’s a little bit scary, but I guess I’m an earthquake survivor again.”
Lorentz played for the San Jose Sharks in the 2022-23 season and believes this was his seventh earthquake.
It was considered a minor earthquake and there were no reported injuries or deaths. But for many Leafs this was a new experience.
“I didn’t really know it was that, honestly,” said rookie Easton Cowan, who is on his first California road trip in the NHL. “I just kind of looked out my door to see what was up and went back to bed, but found out this morning…Obviously pretty crazy, pretty shocking.”
Not everyone experienced the earthquake in real time.
“I’m rattled,” said defenceman Jake McCabe with a sheepish smile. “I woke up to the alert on my phone and I was pissed that I didn’t wake up. I’ve always been wanting to feel one.”
Craig Berube also slept through the seismic activity.
“No clue,” the coach quipped. “I was out. Guys told me this morning and I was like, ‘Really? I didn’t feel nothing.’”
The earthquake dominated discussion in the morning.
“We were all like, ‘Did you feel it? Did you feel it?’” McCabe said. “I feel like it’s like 50-50 guys that woke up or not.”
‘Pretty shocking’: Leafs are ‘rattled’ by earthquake experience in San Jose Jake McCabe, Easton Cowan, Steven Lorentz and Craig Berube share their experience after an earthquake rocked their hotel in San Jose on Wednesday night.
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Hours before the earthquake, the earth shifted in the Hart Trophy race. Sharks centre Macklin Celebrini produced a four-point game to lead the Sharks to a 4-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks. Fans serenaded the sophomore sensations with “MVP” chants.
Does the 19-year-old from Vancouver belong in the Hart Trophy discussion?
“Absolutely,” said McCabe. “I don’t know how he’s not in it, just what he’s done with the turnaround of this team.”
San Jose finished dead last in the NHL last season with 52 points. The Sharks enter Thursday’s game with 77 points, which is just one behind the Los Angeles Kings for the final wildcard spot in the Western Conference.
“I was able to watch the last half of that game last night on TV and obviously he took the game over,” said McCabe, who leads the Leafs at plus-13 this season.
Celebrini is listed as the third choice (+1500) on the Hart Trophy board at FanDuel behind Colorado Avalanche centre Nathan MacKinnon and Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov with Edmonton Oilers centre Connor McDavid the fourth favourite.
Celebrini already proved he belongs in that elite company at the Olympics in Milan.
“A kid of that age and what he’s doing, it’s right here,” Berube said while pointing to his head. “He’s smart. He’s a very intelligent player. He goes to the Olympics to play with a guy like McDavid and different guys, MacKinnon, and stuff, and the coach keeps putting him out there with those guys, and using him, and they want to play with him. You have to have intelligence.”
Celebrini has 105 points this season, which is 51 more than his closest teammate.
“A great player doing unreal things,” said Cowan, who played with Celebrini on Team Canada at the 2024 World Juniors. “You learn a lot from him and he’s a great guy as well. It will be cool to battle against him tonight.”
What did he learn from Celebrini?
“Just how strong he is on the puck,” Cowan said. “I mean, he doesn’t lose many battles. You kind of just see how many battles he wins and it creates chances for him.”
Berube impressed by how MVP candidate Celebrini meshed with McDavid at Olympics Craig Berube and a number of Maple Leafs players share their thoughts on Macklin Celebrini’s incredible sophomore season and discuss whether he should be in consideration for the Hart Trophy.
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The Sharks have won three straight games to surge back into the playoff race, including the last two at home.
“The fans are here,” Celebrini told reporters after Wednesday’s win “It’s loud. We’re winning games and we’re making a push. This is exciting. I haven’t really been through this before and I’m just trying to soak it up.”
The SAP Center, with its low roof, can provide the Sharks with one of the best home-ice advantages in the NHL.
“It’s a great building,” said Berube. “Back in the day, coming in here was a tough place to play. First period was like, ‘Woah.’ I mean, you gotta get out of the first period. But they’re definitely getting that attitude back here with their team.”
Toronto has been off since posting an emotional overtime win in Anaheim on Monday, which was the Radko Gudas revenge game. It won’t be as easy to generate intensity on Thursday.
“We talked about bringing emotion,” Berube said. “The emotion last game was already there. We know that. But today it’s not there, right. It’s different. So, for me, it’s about every individual bringing that emotion tonight and going to play. They have emotion and they’re going to play with emotion because they’re in a situation that they have to. A big part of it is bringing that emotion and being invested in it.”
Leafs Ice Chips: No tanking at the Tank; Stolarz loves swimming with the Sharks The Maple Leafs are coming off an emotional win Monday night in Anaheim in what was the Radko Gudas revenge game. It will be hard to match the emotional intensity of that game tonight as they face a Sharks team that is in a heated playoff battle. Mark Masters has more.
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Cowan is bringing intensity almost every night even though the Leafs are playing out the stretch of a disappointing season.
“He’s emotionally invested and doing a lot of good things,” Berube said. “There’s mistakes, yes, and things we constantly work on with him or show him in video, what he can do better, but he never stops. He’s got that motor and he has it right here (points to head). He knows he made a mistake and he’s pretty good about recognizing it, but that’s not going to stop him from trying it again.”
Cowan produced the second multi-point game of his career on Monday by posting two assists against the Ducks. He’s currently slotting in on the top line beside John Tavares and William Nylander.
Berube isn’t the only one noticing Cowan’s play lately. A pair of Toronto Blue Jays, George Springer and Ernie Clement, were mic’d up during a Leafs game last week and gushed about the 20-year-old winger.
“Easton Cowan, that’s my guy,” Clement told Springer. “He’s a grinder.”
The feeling is mutual.
“Clement’s my favourite player too so that was pretty cool,” Cowan said. “We had a good talk and just hearing some stories from Springer too, it was awesome.”
Why does Cowan like Clement?
“I feel like he’s a versatile player, can play wherever, brings good vibes and he was really good in the postseason,” Cowan said. “So definitely super cool.”
Leafs rookie Cowan appreciates compliment from favourite Jay Clement Blue Jays Ernie Clement and George Springer were mic’d up at a Maple Leafs game last week and showed some love to Easton Cowan during the game. Cowan explains what it was like meeting the two players and getting a chance to speak with them.
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Anthony Stolarz picked up the win on Monday, his third straight victory, and will start again on Thursday.
“He’s got a real good record here so that’s a big part of it,” Berube said.
Stolarz has 10 wins against the Sharks, which is double any other opponent. He has won all six of his starts at the SAP Center.
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Lorentz will draw back into the Leafs lineup on Thursday. He spent some time after the skate catching up with some familiar fans. The 29-year-old from Kitchener, Ont., appreciated how they stuck with the Sharks even though they struggled during his season in San Jose.
“You meet people and fans that still pay money to come see the games and they were at practices all the time, that family, so developed a nice little bond with them,” he said.
Michael Pezzetta will be a healthy scratch on Thursday.
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Projected Leafs lineup for Thursday’s game:
F
Cowan – Tavares – Nylander
Knies – Groulx – Maccelli
Joshua – Domi – Robertson
Lorentz – Quillan – Jarnkrok
D
Rielly – Carlo
McCabe – Ekman-Larsson
Benoit – Myers
G
Stolarz starts
Woll
