The Toronto Maple Leafs finished the 2021 regular season on a losing note, as Kyle Connor scored the game winner early in the third period in the Winnipeg Jets 4-2 victory at the Bell MTS Centre, but the Leafs were successful in achieving their most important goal, which was to stay healthy in the final contest before the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Pierre Engvall and Ilya Mikheyev scored for Toronto and Jack Campbell made 20 saves on the night, as the Leafs finished the year with a 35-14-7 record. Toronto ended the year 6th in league standings with 77 points, the lowest among the four division winners.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe was able to shave off some ice time from some veterans in the last game, as Auston Matthews played less than 20 minutes and team captain John Tavares saw just 16:38 on the night, but the entire club will get plenty of rest over the next five days before the beginning of the best-of-seven series vs. Montreal at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.
“Well we've got obviously a day off – we're going to get home real late tonight – so a day off (on Saturday), and we'll get a couple practice days there.” Keefe said. “We'll squeeze another off day again once we get into the week. We'll have three real good on-ice days. These types of weeks usually get crowded with meetings and discussions and things of that nature. This is a little bit different given we're playing an opponent that we're very familiar with, but the practices themselves will be important, and we'll get things
ramped up again. The guys are excited here now to just officially put an end to this regular season and get on to the next phase.”
With salary cap restrictions no longer a concern, the Leafs will activate Zach Hyman, Zach Bogosian, and Riley Nash off of LTIR, and Keefe will begin the process of deciding who will play in Game 1. Hyman is expected to be ready on Thursday, while Bogosian not appearing on the ice in the last week is an indicator that the veteran is not close to returning.
The most interesting decision will be whether Nash (acquired from Columbus the week prior to the trade deadline) will be inserted in the lineup with his new club after missing the last five weeks of the regular season with a knee injury. Nash would likely slot in on the checking line and move Alex Kerfoot to the wing, with Engvall being a healthy scratch. The big Swede scored four goals in his last five games and if he stays in the lineup, it would mean Kerfoot playing up the middle on the third line.
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