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The Toronto Maple Leafs came home late last month as a team in turmoil, coming off an OT win over Chicago with questions about their core group and special teams performing up to expectations. As they complete their five-game homestand against the Los Angeles Kings at Scotiabank Arena on Monday, the Leafs have righted the ship and are looking to chalk up their sixth-game in a row.
The Leafs 5-2 victory over Boston on Saturday may have been the club’s most complete victory of the season to this point, as they bounced back from an early deficit, played physically against the Bruins and took control of the game with John Tavares and Auston Matthews each scoring a pair of goals and Jack Campbell making 42 saves for his sixth win of the campaign.
"Our team has been playing good hockey and we want to keep this thing moving and focusing on the things that we've been doing well as a team," Leafs head coach Shledon Keefe said on Monday. "Our details on our structure defensively, how that's steadily improved and our execution on offense and special teams and those kinds of things. We're bringing those to the forefront. When we are at our best, this is what it looks like."
Toronto will make no lineup changes, which means that defenseman Justin Holl will be a healthy scratch for his fifth straight game and Jack Campbell will make his fourth consecutive start and first against his former club.
Campbell will continue to get a heavier-than-expected workload for the rest of this month, as the club reported on Sunday that goalie Petr Mrazek re-aggravated the groin injury that kept him out a couple weeks in October. Mrazek was placed on long-term injured reserve retroactive to November 4th and is expected to be out around four weeks. With Mrazek going on LTIR, the club recalled forwards Kirill Semyonov and Joey Anderson.
Toronto will have Joseph Woll backing up on Monday, and it is expected that with days off in between Wednesday’s game in Philadelphia and their return home against Calgary on Friday, that Campbell will be in goal for the next two games.
The Leafs play in Buffalo on Saturday, which could mean that Woll will make his first NHL start or that veteran Michael Hutchinson will be called up to play against the Sabres. Hutchinson cleared waivers at the start of the season, but there are limitations on how many days/games he can be in the NHL before he has to clear waivers a second time.
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Lot’s of â¤ï¸ for the 💙ðŸ¤
— Norman James (@IamNormanJames) April 26, 2021
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