TLN Monday Mailbag: Tuesday Edition, August 1st

We’re a day late on the mailbag this week, and since the slowest days of the summer are among us, there isn’t a ton to talk about when it comes to the Leafs. But we can make it work.

I think the chances Polak is brought back with the Leafs are about as close to zero percent as we can imagine. With the additions of Hainsey, Borgman, Rosen, and the expected emergence of Travis Dermott, there’s going to be a lot of competition for blue-line spots, especially near the bottom of the depth chart. All those players listed are left-handed, but Rosen and Hainsey have shown the ability to play the right side. Unless something reasonably substantial presents itself, like a Colin Miller trade, I doubt the Leafs add to that group.

We could see Polak extended a tryout though, as an attempt to get him a spot on another club, like we saw with Brandon Prust last year. Sort of a “good soldier” reward.

As the league currently operates, training camp starts in mid-September, followed by a too-long exhibition schedule, then an 82-game grind, and finally with three months of playoffs. July and August are essentially the only non-hockey months on the calendar. The NHL moved away from the Olympics partially due to the risk of losing star players to injury without having control over the monetary aspect of the tournament, so it would be a stretch to expect them to have an exhibition game between Sweden and Canada in August when fans are, for the most part, happy to take a break from hockey. I’d think the players are too.

6-1 for the Leafs. This will be Auston Matthews’s second four-goal game.

Sorry, for the rest of the summer it’s most likely that the only piece of Leafs news we’ll get is the eventual Connor Brown signing. Don’t worry though, we’ll make up for it by completely overreacting when it does happen.

Yes.

This might be a bit of a boring answer, but a standard tube of Maple Leaf is the best to have on hand. And you don’t want to buy pre-sliced. It’s better to carve out your own steak.

For an added bonus, cut out the center with a circular cookie cutter and fry an egg right in there at the same time.

Sort of like this, but with protein-rich bologna instead of toast. Talk about #gainz.