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After a 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday set a club record of 10 consecutive home victories, the Toronto Maple Leafs took to the ice at their practice facility in Etobicoke, ON on Monday.
After a light schedule to start March, the Leafs will be very busy starting on Wednesday, when they take on the Dallas Stars at Air Canada Centre in the first of back-to-back games.
Injured center Auston Matthews showed some incremental progress, once again donning a red non-contact jersey, but skating with teammates and participating in line rushes.
The injured center has been out for nearly three weeks with a shoulder injury, but his routine slowly getting back to normal indicates that Matthews is getting closer to returning to the lineup.
“(Matthews) is obviously feeling way better, I noticed when we did the contact stuff, he didn’t do as much of that. He didn’t dive right into it.… Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said after practice.
Babcock ruled out the 20-year-old returning on Wednesday, but said that he would be pushing to get back into the lineup after that, which could mean Toronto’s second visit to Buffalo on Thursday or their third game in four nights against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
This looks a bit more familiar
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) March 12, 2018
Matthews taking some power play reps with his regular unit pic.twitter.com/oFk9oZcCnE
The only absence from practice was defenseman Nikita Zaitsev, who was a late scratch on Saturday due to the flu and was still not feeling well on Monday.
“(Zaitsev) didn’t bounce back the way we expected, so he’s seeing the doctor today.… Babcock said. “We just think it’s flu, but it wasn’t done as quick as we expected.…
Babcock may be instituting a rotation at forward as he has done recently on defense. Josh Leivo played on Saturday and registered an assist on the Leafs opening goal. Matt Martin did the same in the loss in Buffalo last Monday and the big winger may return to the lineup against the Stars, but the Leafs head coach did not commit to any lineup decisions.
"I wouldn’t try reading my mind," Babcock said, "I don’t even know what’s going on in there"
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