The Maple Leafs' captain only had just three shifts in the third period while Tyler Bertuzzi only had one.
The Maple Leafs' captain only had just three shifts in the third period while Tyler Bertuzzi only had one.
There'll be several Maple Leafs looking for a quick bounce-back game against the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday. One of those players is John Tavares.
The 33-year-old took only three shifts in the third period (a total of 3:18) of Saturday's game against the Colorado Avalanche. And during two of those three shifts in the final frame, Colorado found the back of the net.
One being the game-tying goal scored by Andrew Cogliano and the other being Ross Colton's empty-netter.
"He took it fine," a quick-worded Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said of how Tavares handled his lack of shifts.
Keefe followed up by saying he didn't speak with Tavares about the reasoning, but that it was communicated by the amount of ice time.
"I think the message was sent. John knows it wasn't his best last night, but he'll be good tonight."
Tavares' 15:03 of ice time on Saturday was tied for his third-lowest total this season. He played six minutes less than the next player with the most ice time on the Maple Leafs, which was Auston Matthews, who played 21:12 against the Avalanche.
Keefe switched up the lines between the second and third period, putting William Nylander with Matthews and Mitch Marner. Part of that was because of the caliber of play forced by Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Devon Toews.
"I mean, the caliber of play, like that's not the NHL. Like that's another league. I didn't think we were handling that very well," Keefe admitted following Saturday's game.
The other reason for moving Nylander was to help the forward because the trio of he, Tavares, and Tyler Bertuzzi wasn't playing well against Colorado.
"That line was not good for us at all," Keefe said on Saturday. "They didn't have one good shift, that I can remember. So I had to get Willy away from that."
Going into Sunday's game — a back-to-back for both Toronto and the Detroit Red Wings — will Keefe go back to the trio of Tavares, Nylander, and Bertuzzi?
"We'll see," he said.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64HprB5UI14[/embed]
Keefe added that Mark Giordano will be out of the lineup on Sunday against the Red Wings and that Conor Timmins will take his place. The head coach also confirmed that there could be a few more alterations to the group ahead of Sunday's game.
"We had a couple of injuries last night. One that's probably going to require a lineup change and at least one that'll be a game-time decision. So we'll get that sorted out tonight."
For those watching Sunday's game, the start time has just been changed from 7:00 p.m. Eto 7:30 p.m., per the NHL.
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