maple leafs

Playoff opposition in doubt, skeleton crews dressing; Leafs vs. Bruins

Apr 29, 2022 • 8:33 am

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The Toronto Maple Leafs play in their regular-season finale against Boston on Friday and will start their best-of-seven first-round series at Scotiabank Arena early next week, but those are the only things for certain as results on the out-of-town scoreboard on Thursday have thrown things into a tizzy. The Bruins shut out Buffalo in their home finale on Thursday, while Tampa lost 5-2 to the Blue Jackets in Columbus.

With one game remaining, the Lightning lead Boston by one point and finish out the schedule against the Islanders at UBS Arena. The Bruins have the tiebreak advantage with more regulation wins and have to hope that Tampa loses in regulation, overtime or in a shootout to move into third place with a win over Toronto, but the Leafs are saying the right things in regards to not caring about who they play.

"To us doesn't really matter, we are trying to focus on ourselves." Leafs winger Wayne Simmonds said on Friday. "Whether we get Tampa, we know what they're about, or we get Boston and we know what they're about. Both two really good teams, but the focus should be on getting to a point where we're comfortable in every single thing."

Sheldon Keefe indicated after practice on Thursday that top liners Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and goalie Jack Campbell would be rested on Friday, and the Leafs head coach added that team captain John Tavares would also sit against the Bruins.

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"I want to get through the game healthy. That's a big part of it, but at the same time we've been talking the last four or five games or so of just maintaining our habits, especially defensively, how to manage the puck, special teams habits, those kinds of things." Keefe said "We'll spread out the minutes. We'll get guys who haven't played a lot an opportunity to play more tonight and it is a good opportunity for them to show what they can do with more opportunity. I think we are going to need a little bit more out of our depth guys, putting out is because the pace and the physicality (in the playoffs) is so high."

Forward Joey Anderson has been recalled on an emergency basis and will play, and the club will go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen in front of backup Erik Kallgren, but the uncertainty of who their playoff opponent will be just two or three days before the start of the postseason is not an optimum situation.

"It's a little strange (and) not ideal, but it is the same on the other side," Keefe said. "Because we played Tampa twice recently and because there was a higher probability of playing them and (we were) focused on that and yet we have this game with Boston her, so we've been looking at them as well and just preparing for this final game of the season. (We're) really looking at a lot of different things that they're doing and (we're) prepping for that, so we feel like we're in a fine place there."

Boston did not skate at Scotiabank Arena after playing on Thursday and will hold a media availability just before the game, but it is expected that they will rest a number of starters as well.

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