Maple Leafs preparing to play with five defencemen vs. Canadiens
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Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson will miss Saturday's game against the Montreal Canadiens due to an undisclosed injury.
"Day to day," said coach Craig Berube when asked about Ekman-Larsson's status. "He’ll be evaluated. You never know, I mean, he’s a tough guy, but he won’t be playing tomorrow."
Ekman-Larsson logged more than 25 minutes during Wednesday's 4-3 win in Tampa Bay, but the 33-year-old fell awkwardly during his final shift in overtime. He was not on the ice for Friday's practice.
The Leafs, who are already without defenceman Jake McCabe (undisclosed) and centre David Kampf (upper body), will be forced to play a man short against Montreal, because they do not have enough salary cap space (only $195,332 per PuckPedia.com) to call up someone from the American Hockey League.
"Maybe I’ll suit up and play back there," Berube cracked with a smile.
After playing a man short in one game, the Leafs will be allowed to make an emergency recall for Sunday's game in Raleigh against the Carolina Hurricanes - although the player being called up can't make more than $875,000. Dakota Mermis ($775,000 cap hit) and Marshall Rifai ($775,000) are options with the Marlies.
But for Saturday's game, Toronto will have just five defencemen in the lineup as they look to take another step toward finishing first in the Atlantic Division.
"It’s always challenging," said Berube, "but we played games where we’ve lost a [defenceman] early in a game and you play with five. It’s important that our forwards do a good job of helping our D out tomorrow night and making sure that they get back for break outs and things like that and make the game as easy on them as possible. That’s a big thing, and not getting extended shifts in the D-zone and tiring your defence out. That will be a big part of the game."
Simon Benoit, who has played almost exclusively on the third pair this season, will move up and slot in beside Chris Tanev. Benoit is a team-leading plus-seven in the last five games.
"We’re pretty good defensively so that would be a good shutdown pair," Benoit told TSN. " I’m excited for that. [Tanev’s] a good player. He blocks every single shot out there. Just give him the puck, let him break out the puck and (laughs) that’s it."
Benoit is averaging 16 minutes and 19 seconds of ice time per game, which ranks sixth among Toronto's defencemen this season.
"Five D sometimes is kind of fun," he said. "You get your turn a lot quicker, so I’m excited for that. If we don’t have a choice, we’re just going to have to rock with it, right?"
Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo remained paired together at practice. Philippe Myers, who only played seven minutes and 19 seconds in Tampa, will be the fifth defenceman on Saturday.
McCabe, who got hurt during a game against the Florida Panthers on April 2, skated on his own before practice. Berube expects him to play before the end of the regular season, which wraps up next week with games against Buffalo (Tuesday) and Detroit (Thursday).
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The Canadiens will be a tired group after playing on Friday night in Ottawa, but Montreal is also feeling very good at the moment. The Habs have the best points percentage (.727) in the Eastern Conference since the 4 Nations Face-Off in mid-February.
"They play fast," winger Bobby McMann said. "They’re really good on the forecheck. They can chip pucks in and get behind you and then make plays off the rush. They’re so fast through the middle of the ice that we have to make sure we’re picking guys up and are in front of them."
The Leafs have won two of three games against the Canadiens this season. During their last meeting on Jan. 18 at the Bell Centre, Toronto overcame a 3-0 deficit to win 7-3.
"Their young players are growing," said Berube of the Habs. "The core of their team is growing together, the young guys, and they’ve had pretty solid goaltending here down the stretch, which always helps. They’re a good team. They got a lot of fast players and skilled guys. Solid team."
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Calle Jarnkrok moved up to the second line beside John Tavares and William Nylander for Wednesday's game. McMann moved down to the third line with Max Domi and Nick Robertson.
"With their lineup the way it was, I wanted to have that Domi line back together," Berube explained. "With the matchups, the way they went, I could get them to provide a little offence there, and they had some opportunities in the first period and didn’t capitalize on it. But I’ve gone back to that line numerous times this year. They do a good job off the rush, and they got speed."
The Domi line ended up getting outshot 3-0 and out attempted 14-3, per NaturalStatTrick.com, despite playing primarily against Tampa Bay's third line, which featured Oliver Bjorkstrand and Nick Paul.
The Tavares line held a 6-5 edge in shots during their 5-on-5 minutes despite being out attempted 13-11 and seeing a lot of Brayden Point.
At Friday's practice, Jarnkrok remained with Tavares and Nylander. He has just one goal (on the power play) and four assists in 15 games since returning from groin and sports hernia surgery on March 3.
"He’s working extremely hard out there, and I think he’s doing a lot of good things that might go unnoticed to the viewer, or to a lot of people," Berube said. "But he does a lot of little things right out there, night in and night out. I think he’s still working to get his feet going under him. [He's] been out a long time. I think he gets going for a little bit, and then a little bit of a setback maybe. But he’s working his way through it and I think he’s doing a good job. I do expect him to get to another level yet."
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The only line that produced offence for the Leafs on Wednesday was the top unit of Auston Matthews between Matthew Knies and Mitch Marner.
Marner finished with a goal and two assists, which raised his season total to 97 points. He's on the cusp of becoming only the fourth Maple Leaf to ever reach the century mark joining Darryl Sittler, Doug Gilmour and Matthews.
Teammates are rallying around Marner's pursuit of a special milestone.
"Whenever you have a chance, as a team, to have a player accomplish something like that, I don’t want to say ‘It’s important,’ but it’s nice," said Rielly. "You want to help him out. He’s obviously going to put the team first and play his game and, if it happens, it happens, but as his teammates we want him to get it done. We’re going to focus on the games and points here that are at stake and the rest will take care of itself, but obviously you’re rooting for him and want to see him get it done."
Marner has come painfully close to 100 points before, finishing with 99 points two years ago and 97 points the year before that. In both those seasons, Marner sat out a game late in the year for extra rest.
"It’d be exciting," said Benoit. "He worked so hard the last couple years to get that 100 points and him reaching that goal would be pretty cool. Hopefully he makes it. I wish him the best."
Marner, who is fifth overall in NHL scoring, would be the first winger in Leafs history to reach triple digits.
"It would be great," said McMann. "He’s been close a couple times and I’m sure he’s going to get there. He’s going to get there probably multiple times in his career, so it would be cool to get the first one here out of the way."
Marner has a goal and three assists in the three games against Montreal this season.
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McMann is sporting a black eye courtesy Wednesday's fight with Point.
"Just throw a bunch of ice on it," he said with a grin. "Looks a lot worse than maybe it is. It doesn’t really hurt much. It kind of leaked into the eye there ... I’ll have to FaceTime my mom and make sure I let her know I’m OK."
It was McMann's first fight of the season and only the second of his career.
It was Point's first fight in more than two years.
"I wasn’t really expecting him to just drop’em like that," McMann acknowledged. "Once he did I was ready for it, and refs came in, but that’s just the heat of the game."
McMann ended up with an extra two penalty minutes for cross-checking.
"It started with a cross-check [from Point] leaving the scrum [along the boards] there a little bit and then I turned around and that’s why it all started there," McMann said. "I guess the refs maybe saw something differently, but it’s a different perspective from my end."
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Defenceman Jani Hakanpää continues to practice with the Leafs, but it's unclear if he'll be available to play in the playoffs.
"That’s a tough one to say anything, really," he acknowledged. "It’s been trending really good in the gym, out on the ice, and off the ice. Hopefully, we get there. We’ll see."
The 32-year-old Finn is dealing with a nagging knee issue. He's only played two games with the Leafs all season, which came back in November.
"It’s a nice place to come to every morning even though you’re not where you wanted to be," he said. "But coming in here, there’s some great people around that you can work with every single day. You get here, get a nice cup of coffee, have a good laugh, there’s a lot of worse things you can do in life. Obviously, it’s been trying but just trying to keep that positive mindset and cheer the boys on when they’ve been here and just enjoy the ride, I guess, even though it might sound a little weird. But just do the work and enjoy everything else that comes with still being able to play hockey and get out there and have a good time with your teammates."
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Lines at Friday's practice:
Knies - Matthews - Marner
Jarnkrok - Tavares - Nylander
McMann - Domi - Robertson
Holmberg - Laughton - Lorentz
Pacioretty
Benoit - Tanev
Rielly - Carlo
Hakanpää - Myers
Stolarz & Woll