Braun Shavers Toronto
Look for the Sharks to go with seven defensemen tonight after calling up Justin Braun from Worcester.
Todd McLellan wouldn’t go further than a “chance we could do that” when the subject came up, but he did say Joe Pavelski was not ready to return to the lineup and Brandon Mashinter stayed off the ice this morning, so all the signs are there.
Mashinter, by the way, was in the locker room afterward and hedged when I asked if he was hurt. McLellan, however, said there wasn’t an injury issue.
And it looks like Antti Niemi is back in goal again.
*****In the context of his selection for the all-star game skills competition, Logan Couture had a great story to share this morning. Prompted by a question from a Toronto reporter who remembered the moment, Couture talked about winning a shooting accuracy competition at age 10 with the finals being held in Toronto’s Air Canada Center.
“I still have that trophy. It’s got a big leaf on it and the Leafs were not my team growing up,” said Couture, who was a Sabres fan growing up in London, Ont. “Best trophy, but I didn’t like the leafs on it.”
...January tends to be a little quiet on the repertory circuit, but you wouldn’t know it from a glance at the TIFF Bell Lightbox schedule.
In addition to the just-launched Soviet sci-fi retrospective Attack The Bloc (see listings, this page), TIFF marks the 50th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival’s Semaine De La Critique sidebar by pulling out some of its greatest discoveries, and inviting Toronto critics – myself included – to introduce them.
Tonight (Thursday, January 19) at 6:30 pm, the Globe’s Liam Lacey introduces Jerzy Skolimowski’s Walkover; Friday (January 20) at 6:30 pm, Positif’s Fabien Gaffez – a member of the Semaine De La Critique selection committee – presents Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes and The Virgin Of Pessac, two rarely screened shorts by Jean Eustache, the lionized director of The Mother And The Whore.
On Saturday (January 21) night, esteemed Chicago critic Jonathan Rosenbaum introduces Anna Karina’s directorial debut, Living Together, at 7 pm, and I try not to lose the audience at 10 pm by presenting a personal favourite, the Belgian black comedy Man Bites Dog.
