maple leafs

Load management vs. Maintaining momentum; Leafs vs. Sabres

Apr 12, 2022 • 10:34 am

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have clinched an Eastern Conference playoff spot and 10 games remaining before their real challenge begins, but the club has to be concerned with giving veterans some rest and recuperating time and at the same time over the remaining two-and-a-half weeks maintaining their recent level of success.

The Leafs continue their three-game homestand with their final meeting with the Buffalo Sabres at Scotiabank Arena. The Sabres have played over .500 in the last two months and handed Toronto a pair of lopsided defeats last month, including a 5-2 loss at the Heritage Classic in which Auston Matthews earned a two-game suspension for cross-checking Buffalo blueliner Rasmus Dahlin.

Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe on Monday indicated that the club was going to give a couple key veterans a day off against Buffalo since they were “less than 100 percent…. After Jack Campbell played in a 4-3 overtime victory against Dallas last week, the Leafs went with backup Erik Kallgren in a 3-2 win over Montreal on Saturday. Keefe said that Campbell was dealing with an issue not related to the rib injury he dealt with last month and the Leafs starter needs a couple of days for it to settle down.

Muzzin took part in practice at the Ford Performance Centre on Monday as the extra defenseman, which means that Timothy Liljegren will play in his place after sitting the last two games.

Campbell and Muzzin may be nicked up, but the fact that they are not playing may be more that Toronto has clinched a playoff spot and will be strategically giving veterans some rest in advance of the playoffs.

"Whether we clinched or not, we've been having those conversations even before the last little bit. Just how are we going to handle things here and having conversations with guys and our groups feeling pretty good. It just so happens that we've come out in the last few days with some very minor things with some guys and managing that so I think we'll continue to monitor that day to day." Keefe said. "We'll see how that all shakes out, but definitely we want to be mindful of how the group is feeling and with days off and things of that nature. I think we're pretty much through this month in somewhat of a playoff schedule......We've got to make sure that we're being smart with what we're doing on the ice each day."

With Campbell dealing with injury issues and Petr Mrazek likely out deep into the playoffs, one of the high priorities for the Leafs is to give Kallgren a consistent workload to have him ready to step in if Campbell is unavailable. Similarly, Keefe has been mixing his defensive combos over the last few games to find which pairings work together best and must play Liljegren to keep him ready for the post-season in case someone goes down.

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