During this week’s development camp, the Maple Leafs and their prospects have been rubbing elbows. Franchise great Wendel Clark talked to them about what it means to be a Leaf. Coach Craig Berube gave a speech about sacrificing for teammates.
Some of it has been more personal. Defenceman Chris Tanev, for example, had a chat with Ben Danford about blocking pucks. Jake Muzzin, Mark Giordano and Kyle Clifford have also been around.
Some Leafs who live locally have been taking part in team skates as well. That’s where forwards Nick Moldenhauer and Scott Laughton became friends.
鈥淪imilar size player to me and he’s been in the NHL for 10-plus years,鈥 said the five-foot-10 Moldenhauer. 鈥淗e definitely knows what he’s doing out there. Being able to skate with him, ask him questions, I’m looking to continue to do that for the rest of the off-season.鈥
Pressure points
Leafs prospects had a session with Marie Claire, the team’s mental health consultant, about dealing with pressure.
鈥淭he big thing was, pressure really is a privilege,鈥 said Moldenhauer. 鈥淪o reframe it, get away from treating it as anxiety. Treat it like a privilege, because it truly is.
Forward William Belle took it further: 鈥淧ressure can be a good thing if you channel into the right things. If you let pressure overwhelm you, it’s a bad thing. But if you use it in a positive and good way聽鈥 you know, I deserve this pressure, I earned this pressure 鈥斅爐hat’s a good way you can use it.鈥
Yeeeehaw 馃
鈥 色色啦 Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs)
Fun morning at the stables with Hanleys Horses and world class trainer Jeff Davis from Downunder Horsemanship 馃惔
Yea and neigh
Friday’s horse-training session at Exhibition Place surprised the players, but had everybody smiling.
鈥淲hen we first walked in, it smelled horrible,鈥 said Moldenhauer. 鈥淲e were like, OK, what are we in for here? We didn’t know if we had to ride horses or something. So that was interesting.鈥
The Leafs hired trainer Jeff Davis, who brought in an untrained colt and, throughout the morning, taught it to wear a saddle.
鈥淲hen he was putting the saddle on the horse, the horse went absolutely ballistic,鈥 said defenceman Noah Chadwick. 鈥淚t was weird to see a horse jump up and down with that amount of force.鈥
It turned into a memorable teaching moment.
鈥淩espect leads to trust, and trust leads to good relationships, that’s what I took out of it,鈥 said Belle.
鈥淚t’s good to be not always focused on hockey and get your mind away from the game,鈥 said forward Hudson Malinoski.
鈥淚t’s cool to experience something new at development camp,鈥 said Moldenhauer. 鈥淒efinitely a curveball.鈥
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