Recap of the Leafs Smashfest Performances

The annual charity ping-pong tournament Smashfest was in Toronto yesterday, and it was as fun as it’s always been.

Now in it’s sixth year, the tournament is hosted by one of the newest Leafs, Dominic Moore, and sees 25 NHL players and several hundreds of guests play some ping-pong for charity. Some of the players from the league included Taylor Hall, Jeff Skinner, Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk, Andreas Athanasiou, Alex Burrows, three-peater Patrick Eaves, and even an appearance from Canadian tennis player Milos Raonic.

But who really cares about them? All the matters is that on top of Moore, three other Leafs made an appearance, that being Zach Hyman, Connor Carrick, and Connor Brown.

Considering he’s the host, Moore is obviously a veteran of the game, so what better place to start evaluating than the best! Connor Brown and him were on a team together, and hopefully Moore gave Brown his fair share of advice. Brown can even be seen on the sidelines doing some scouting to improve on his own form, although he clear doesn’t watch the game.

As for Moore himself, you can clearly see by his serve alone that he’s a master of the game. Not only does he serve the ball to perfection, he even decides to show off a little bit by throwing the ball with a bit of backspin to curve back, instead of the standard serve where you throw it up with little to no angle and spin.

This finesse would later show up in Connor Brown’s game, as at one point of the tournament he executed a soft serve, which is a fun way to get inside the head of your opponent.

The other Connor didn’t need any Leafs on his team, and relied solely on his own skills to pull through the tournament. He clearly had some lightning fast reflexes, as his own team couldn’t capture him in a photograph.

But, if there was one guy who could top Carrick’s reflexes, it’s the guy who can execute a single axel in the middle of an NHL game. Despite going the farthest of the Maple Leafs in the tournament, Carrick was no match for Jeff Skinner, and he would leave in the semi-finals.

As for Zach Hyman, he was no different on the table as he is on the ice. His serve appears to be your average “I’ve never played before” serve, and after a couple attempts where he tried his hardest, his more talented teammates took over.

Who knows what this will mean to the Leafs this season. Will we see Moore continue to be a mentor to young Connor Brown? Will Carrick have a breakout season like he did in the tournament? Will Hyman continue to be a hard worker? I guess we’ll have to wait until we find out.