The Toronto Maple Leafs hope that the return of some key players and some welcome rest will help them hit the reset button and gets back into the race for an Eastern Conference playoff spot, as they take on the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Monday.
With the exception of All Star participants Mitch Marner and Frederik Andersen, the club have been off for eight days and will be looking to shake off the defensive issues they encountered in the two weeks before the break and recapture their level of play during their 10-game consecutive point streak.
"When we got back together yesterday and assessed where things are at. There's been a lot of good obviously since Sheldon has come in, but no question we know what our reality is, the importance of each and every game is in the consistency that we need, the areas we have to clean up and the areas we've been really strong in." Leafs captain John Tavares said on Monday. "Obviously, (there is) a lot of urgency and the importance of that consistency is really evident with where we're at now."
The Leafs are four points in back of Florida for third place in the Atlantic Division and the Carolina Hurricanes for the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference, and will be getting both defenseman Jake Muzzin and forward Trevor Moore back after lengthy absences.
Muzzin missed a month with a foot injury and is being reunited with Justin Holl, which served as Toronto’s shutdown pairing during some of the Leafs winning streak.
Jeremy Bracco circling pylons at the AHL SuperSkills. Look at those edges.
"They were just feeding off each other very well. (Holl's) ability to use his skating and speed to defend the neutral zone and also to help us break out and get the puck moving up the ice and (Muzzin's) positioning, his competitiveness, his intelligence (and) his experience to be able to play against good players and just really help our structure fall into place and be in good spots when they're out there." Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said.
Moore has missed over two months with concussion issues after colliding with Boston’s Chris Wagner on November 15th and skated alongside Frederik Gauthier and Jason Spezza on the fourth line in practice on Sunday.
Keefe kept his top line unit of Zach Hyman, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner intact, but shook up the second line slotting Alex Kerfoot on the wing with John Tavares and William Nylander and moving Pierre Engvall to the middle between Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen.
On defense, Travis Dermott was shifted to the second pairing with Tyson Barrie, while the bottom pairing of rookie Rasmus Sandin and Cody Ceci remained intact. Sandin will be playing in his 10th NHL game, which will kick in the first-year of his three-year entry-level contract.
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