With five games remaining in the regular season, the Leafs are finding opportunities for players to rest.
With five games remaining in the regular season, the Leafs are finding opportunities for players to rest.
NEWARK, N.J. — It's not unusual for the Toronto Maple Leafs to make a few lineup changes in the second half of back-to-back games but the club will utilize every extra body that they have and put them into the lineup when the club visits the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center on Tuesday.
On defense, Conor Timmins will draw into the lineup for Ilya Lyubushkin. Up front, Connor Dewar and Ryan Reaves will come out of the lineup for Nick Robertson and Noah Gregor.
"I just want to get everybody involved here in this back-to-back. So that's a really big part of it," Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe explained.
With five games remaining in the regular season, the Leafs expected to be finding opportunities for players to get some rest. At the same time, Toronto enters Tuesday's game sitting just three points back of the Florida Panthers for second place in the Atlantic Division.
Robertson was a healthy scratch for the last pair of games when Mitch Marner returned to the lineup after a 12-game absence due to an ankle injury. Gregor was in the lineup the last time the Leafs played the Devils, a 6-3 loss at Scotiabank Arena on Mar. 26.
"I think we've done a good job of that since then," Keefe said of that game. "It's just a reminder for us that we've got to take care of the puck. And if you make things easy on the opposition to get to your net, then it makes it real hard to win. And this team certainly has the skill and ability to counter-punch. But it's really more just about us having a real disciplined approach to our game."
Timmins last played on April 3 in a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Samsonov stays home to rest
When Joseph Woll dressed as the backup to Ilya Samsonov in the Leafs' 3-2 overtime win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday, it was a change from Keefe's previous plan of sending Woll to the visiting city a day in advance.
Turns out it's Samsonov who is getting the day-off treatment now.
"We had a plan for Sammy that we weren't going to bring him on the trip, just to save him that travel to just come here and have a nothing day," Keefe explained. "We felt (Martin) Jones could back up for us, so it just made sense for Sammy. He'll take the day off today, and then we'll have a team day off tomorrow, which Sammy will go in and get a little bit of work done himself with Curtis (goalie coach Curtis Sanford). But it's just really about managing and benefiting with three goalies."
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Samsonov has begun to separate himself from Woll as the expected starter for Game 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs with his strong play in the net. Meanwhile, Woll has struggled to find the same form he had before a high-ankle sprain in December forced him to miss nearly three months.
"Finding a groove has been difficult for him, that's really it," Keefe said of Woll. "But the challenge for him is just to take each day and game as they come. And here's a challenge and opportunity for him here tonight to just go in and trust his skill and for our team to do a better job in front of him certainly than we did the last time against these guys."
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