*******If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact” button at the top of the page. *******
After a long road swing through the Pacific Northwest, Western Canada, and the beautiful state of New Jersey, the Toronto Maple Leafs return home for four straight before heading out on the road again. The first of the homestand will be against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers (who handed the Leafs a 5-2 loss on March 1), and Toronto received some good news on the injury front at practice on Friday, as team captain John Tavares participated fully.
Tavares was was labeled twice in the 4-1 loss to Vancouver on Saturday by Tyler Myers and Dakota Joshua, was a limited participant at practice on Monday and was held out of the 4-3 win over New Jersey on Tuesday, but at the Ford Performance Centre in Etobicoke, ON on Friday, he skated on a third line with Michael Bunting and Wayne Simmonds and took his normal spot at the bumper on the Leafs top power-play unit.
“I feel great, everything's been great. I'm just happy to continue to prepare and get ready for tomorrow." Tavares said. There's timing and rhythm that I always talk about, which is important and you get from playing a lot, but obviously physically and with the difficulty of that trip that was an added bonus."
Head coach Sheldon Keefe chose to keep the top two lines of Alex Kerfoot-Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner, and Calle Jarnkrok-William Nylander together, with a fourth line unit of Zach Aston-Reese-David Kampf-Noel Acciari at practice, but indicated that the club will go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen against the Oilers.
Defensively, the shutdown pairing of Jake McCabe-TJ Brodie remained intact, Mark Giordano was placed with a new partner in Timothy Liljegren after Justin Holl’s wanting performance against the Devils and Morgan Rielly skated with Erik Gustafsson, but with seven blueliners being used, it is likely that Holl will play instead of Conor Timmins. Luke Schenn is still in Vancouver awaiting the birth of his child.
Based on the return of Matt Murray during the trip and the four games during the homestand being separated by a day off, it is highly likely that Keefe will split the workload between Murray and Ilya Samsonov, but it is unknown who will get tabbed against Edmonton.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»