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“Maintenance” Leafs make mince meat of Canucks

April 30, 2021, 12:07 PM ET [254 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs have the luxury down the stretch to give their key players a rest before what they hope is a long playoff run and did so in a 4-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.

William Nylander, Auston Matthews, Pierre Engvall and Mitch Marner scored for Toronto, and David Rittich made 15 saves for his first win with the Blue and White against a weary Vancouver club playing their third game in four nights. The Leafs gave defensemen Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin, forward Nick Foligno and goalie Jack Campbell the night off and inserted Ben Hutton, Timothy Liljegren, Engvall and Michael Hutchinson (as the backup).

Head coach Sheldon Keefe played Hutton over 22 minutes and Liljegren 15:35 in their debut and continued to give Rasmus Sandin top-pairing minutes and responsibilities, as he evaluates the 21-year-old blueliner before the post-season.

“I thought both (Hutton and Liljegren) did really well, gave us good minutes. Both guys looked comfortable on both sides of the puck, moved the puck really well, defended well. I thought it was really good and I thought the extra minutes and responsibility that were spread out all the way through the defense,” Keefe said after the game. “A lot fell on Sandin, and I thought he was excellent again….and TJ Brodie, I thought, pairing with Rasmus was exceptional tonight and I thought that that really helped not only Rasmus, but our entire defense.”



Matthews has maintained a torrid pace in pursuit of the Rocket Richard Trophy, scoring eight goals in his last nine games to establish an eight goal cushion on Connor McDavid with two weeks to go in the regular season.

The highlight of the night occurred early in the first period, as Wayne Simmonds exacted a bit of retribution on Canucks defenseman Alex Edler for his knee-on-knee hit to Zach Hyman on April 18. Edler was suspended for two games and did not appear to want to fight the more experienced pugilist in Simmonds, but did drop the gloves and received a few haymakers in the one-sided bout.



“I do think little things like that are in the fabric of our game and I think are part of what makes a team a team, brings a team together.” Keefe said. “Credit to (Simmonds) for stepping up in those situations. I think his teammates appreciate it and recognize it. It set a good tone for the game. It was nothing that was really talked about beforehand or anything like that. It caught me a little bit off guard, but I think anyone who's been around the game kind of knew what was happening there and credit for Wayne to step up and, at the same time, for Edler to participate in that.”

The Leafs finish up their season slate against the Canucks on Saturday, before facing the Montreal Canadiens three straight next week.

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