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The Toronto Maple Leafs will be getting one of their injured group back in the lineup, as they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Tuesday. Frederik Andersen will return between the pipes after not dressing for two games because of an upper body injury.
Toronto won all three games with Curtis McElhinney in goal (Dallas, Buffalo and Montreal) and are looking to get Andersen back to his regular routine before the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Leafs are firmly entrenched in third place in the Atlantic, with the only thing left to be determined in the next three weeks is their first round opponent. The division-leading Lightning have 102 points and 10 games remaining, while the second place Bruins have 99 points and 11 games left. Boston lost a valuable point on Monday, as Columbus rallied from two goals down and won 5-4 in overtime on a Cam Atkinson goal.
Auston Matthews, Leo Komarov and Nikita Zaitsev will not play and according to
Paul Hendrick of Leafs Nation Network, the only other change will be Josh Leivo replacing Dominic Moore on the left side of the fourth line.
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There has been a rise recently over the current divisional playoff system and how it may lead to matchups that belong in the Conference Final but will take place in the first or second round.
For example, the Nashville Predators will play the wild card team with the worst record in round 1, but will then play the winner of the Winnipeg – Minnesota series in round 2. The Jets have been one of the more exciting teams in the NHL this season and if there is a Winnipeg – Nashville matchup, it would make a great Western Conference Final, but instead a team with one of the top three records in the West will be out by mid-April.
The same is likely to occur in the East as the Atlantic Division winner will take on the fifth place team in the Metro (currently the New Jersey Devils) and the Leafs will play either Tampa Bay or Boston in round 1.
If the NHL had maintained the conference playoff format used prior to the lockout, the winner of the Atlantic (currently Tampa) would still play the Devils, Boston would play the first wild card (Columbus) and the Leafs as the non-division winner with the best record would play the Philadelphia Flyers.
It is unknown whether the NHL Board of Governors will review the current playoff format over the summer or will choose to keep it as is, but it appears that it will be an extremely difficult challenge for Toronto to get out of their division.
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The Leafs continue to remain silent on the future status of GM Lou Lamoriello. Reports earlier this month speculated that the 75-year-old Hall of Famer may be set in the near future to take a senior advisory role, but Team President Brendan Shanahan indicated to Sportsnet’s
Elliotte Friedman that things within the organization will remain status quo until after the playoffs.
“No decisions have been made. I haven’t spoken to any particulars, we are concentrating on the rest of the season in the playoffs.” Shanahan said. “Any decisions about the organization won’t be made until after the season is over.”
There continues to be speculation that Lamoriello’s contract with the Leafs lasts longer than the three years he has been in Toronto, but that a shift upstairs would take place in the near future that would allow either Kyle Dubas or Mark Hunter to take over as general manager next season.
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