‘It’s Important To Take Your Mind Off It’: How The Maple Leafs Are Handling Their Dreary Start To The Season

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'It's Important To Take Your Mind Off It': How The Maple Leafs Are Handling Their Dreary Start To The Season

On any given day when Matthew Knies leaves the rink, he’ll arrive home and strum on his guitar.

He’s just one of many Toronto Maple Leafs players meandering their way through a five-game losing streak, stemming back to Nov. 8 against the Boston Bruins. Toronto has dropped nine of 10 points through that span and currently find themselves in second last in the Eastern Conference.

During this complicated stretch, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube has preached to his players to try block out the noise. That mainly involves staying off social media. But it’s also important, when they can, to take their mind off the game especially during a stretch like this.

“Little things for me — when I get home, I play guitar,” Knies said on Monday afternoon.

“I know some other guys play piano, and I think there’s actually a few guitarists on our team. But I think other guys just go home to their kids and wives, and family. I think you just try to not think about hockey and focus on your life.

“I think once you come to the rink and you open those doors, obviously the focus kicks in. But yeah, it’s important to take your mind off it a little bit and just enjoy your life.”

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Knies is currently practicing “Must’ve Never Met You” by country music artist Luke Combs. Does he sing the songs, too?

“Yeah, but it’s not great. You wouldn’t want to hear it,” he laughed.

One player who never seems to be affected by the pressure in Toronto is William Nylander. The 29-year-old has often said how much he enjoys taking his dogs, Pablo and Banksy, for walks during the season to get his mind away from hockey.

But has he heard Knies play the guitar?

Grinning ear-to-ear, Nylander said: “Never heard him, so I can’t imagine he’s that good then.”

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It’s always important to have an escape from the game of hockey for a bit. However, it’s also crucial to bond with your teammates. That’s one area Toronto has struggled with this year, given they’ve only played six of their 19 games on the road.

After tallying their fifth loss in as many games to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday evening, the entire team went out for dinner, opting to remain in the Windy City for one more night instead of flying back home that evening.

“It was nice for our team to have a dinner in Chicago and just get together, and kind of get closer,” Knies said.

What does a team dinner look like? Is there much hockey talk during a difficult stretch like this, or do players and staff try to mute that discussion for one night?

“I mean, every now and then it flows in,” said Knies, “I don’t really like to think about hockey too much outside of the rink. That’s just the kind of personality I have. So I wasn’t talking too much, maybe some guys were.”

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Nylander added that it was a very much-needed outing.

“We haven’t been able to spend a lot of time (together). I mean, we’ve been home a lot, so it’s good to get some time with the guys and enjoy that night.”

Toronto has two more games at home before six straight on the road. Despite several injuries within the group, a handful of their top players and the depth will have to dig themselves out of the hole they’re currently in.

“Yeah, I mean, we’re losing, but I think we’re feeling positive and trending hopefully in the right direction,” added Nylander. “I mean, if this keeps going for another month, then it’ll be a different mood.”