Maple Leafs Rest More Players Against Red Wings Following Confirmed Playoff Matchup With Lighting
Nick Abruzzese will make his season debut, Conor Timmins will play for the first time since February, while Mark Giordano, Jake McCabe and Mitch Marner will rest.
The Toronto Maple Leafs now know with certainty that they will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. With that in mind, the club will continue to rest players.
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Sheldon Keefe had already been rotating the defense for quite a while, but this time there will be some material changes up front.
Nick Abruzzese was called up on an emergency basis and will become the 41st Maple Leafs skater to draw into a regular season game.
Sheldon Keefe told reporters on Sunday morning that Mitch Marner is dealing with some bumps and bruises, which necessitated the call-up.
Wayne Simmonds will return to the lineup after he missed Saturday's game against the Ottawa Senators due to illness. With Noel Acciari (neck) and Ryan O'Reilly (finger) still unavailable, that paved the way for Radim Zohorna to make his Leafs debut. The 6-foot-6 Czech forward impressed with a goal and a game-high four shots on goal while logging a team-low 6:15 of ice time.
With the addition of Abruzzese, the Leafs will return to a traditional 12 forwards and six defensemen lineup tonight and Matt Murray will start in goal.
The Tampa Bay Lightning clinched a postseason berth immediately following Toronto's 3-0 win against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. The only thing up for grabs in their coming playoff series with the Maple Leafs is who will host it.
Toronto has a four-point lead on Tampa for second place in the Atlantic Division but also has a pair of games in hand.
"We played them last season and monitoring them this season there isn't a whole lot difference there in terms of what you're going to prepare for," Keefe said on Saturday. "We'll just focus on our game and as we focus on our game that allows us to prepare for the remaining regular season games."
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