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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN Toronto Reporter Mark Masters reports on the Maple Leafs, who held a practice at Ford Performance Centre on Thursday ahead of Friday’s regular-season finale against the Boston Bruins.

Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Jack Campbell will not play in Friday's regular-season finale against the Boston Bruins. 

"I get feedback from our medical team," said coach Sheldon Keefe of the decision. "But the most important thing is to have a conversation with the players, give them my perspective and get their perspective and see how they're feeling. [It's] not so much how they're feeling about the upcoming game, but how they're feeling about their game and if they need to play one more in order to get ready."

Toronto is locked into the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division and will host Game 1 of their playoff series against either the Tampa Bay Lightning or Bruins on Monday night. 

Matthews reached the 60-goal milestone in Tuesday's win and owns a five-goal lead on Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl in the Rocket Richard Trophy race. The Oilers have two games remaining. 

Matthews recently missed three games with an undisclosed injury. 

"He's missed some time already and we continue to monitor and manage that," Keefe said. "In Mitch's case, he's played a lot of hockey for us and nobody's at 100 per cent at this point of the season so, with that being the case, he can definitely benefit from a night off."

Marner will finish with 97 points. Only three Leafs – Darryl Sittler, Doug Gilmour and Matthews – have recorded 100 points in a season. Marner had hoped to become the first winger to join that exclusive club.    

"It's definitely tough," Marner admitted, "but, at the same time, I want to just make sure I'm ready to go ... Talking with our team here, we got a pretty good awareness of how this year's been and how it's, obviously, hard on everyone's body. We all discussed that and we thought it was a good idea to rest and make sure we do the right stuff before the real thing starts."

Campbell will dress as the backup goalie on Friday when Erik Kallgren gets the start. 

"We still have a salary-cap situation that we have to abide by," Keefe pointed out, "so you can only make so many moves and so many decisions."

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Per Keefe, centre John Tavares missed practice for "maintenance" and his status for Friday's game is still to be determined. The team's captain sat out Sunday's game in Washington for load management.

Tavares scored his 27th goal of the season on Tuesday thanks to a beautiful pass from William Nylander. That duo was reunited on a line during the game and will likely start together in the playoffs. 

"If John was here at practice those guys would've been together," Keefe confirmed. "We're looking that way now."

Nylander was moved to the third line in late March. Keefe believes the time apart helped energize the duo. 

"I don't know how many minutes they've played together since they've been apart, but they've played, really, parts of every game, at some point, together and not just power play," Keefe noted. "So, they haven't been too apart in that sense."

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Top-line winger Michael Bunting, who left Saturday's game in Florida with a suspected lower-body injury, skated again on Thursday. He was on the ice for about an hour ahead of the main workout. Keefe is encouraged by the progress.  

"It's been very positive," the coach said. "He's gotten his work in. He stayed on for a little extra today. I don't have any official word about what his plan might be or anything like that, but we're happy that he's remained on the ice and the sessions have been positive."

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With Bunting out, Alex Kerfoot filled in beside Matthews and Marner on Tuesday.

"You try not to change your game too much," Kerfoot said with a smile, "but there's a little bit of a natural tendency to get them the puck a little bit more. What the third guy on the line is trying to do, and what Bunts has done a really good job of this year, is get them the puck in good spaces and let them make plays."

"He did a good job in that spot the other night," Keefe said. "There are some similarities between Bunting and Kerfoot and he's able to fill in some of those spots for that line. When we do that it does take away from other lines and that's part of how I felt the other night. When Kerfoot wasn't in that mix in the middle six, I felt it was an issue for us. So, that's why I felt the need to move Willy up there with John and have a different look that way."

Kerfoot produced a career-high 51 points this season while playing all 81 games. He has spent time on all four forward lines.   

"Kerf is an important player for us and one that a lot of players want to play with," Keefe revealed. "We have to be mindful of that. We have to use him appropriately. Of course, we need Matthews and Marner and that line rolling, but we also need to make sure we have some depth underneath it."

Why do teammates want to play with Kerfoot?  

"He's so consistent, reliable and versatile in how he plays," Keefe said. "He forechecks. He wins the puck back. He can make a play. He's defensively responsible and very aware of what's happening in the game. And, he's just a good guy, too. That's part of it. He's a guy that everybody likes to be around. So, for all those reasons, he's a guy that everybody wants to play with and that's part of why you see him move around."

Kerfoot remained on the top line at Thursday's practice. 

"I went to Auston and Mitch about the possibility of Kerfoot filling in there and it was, 'Absolutely, let's go,'" said Keefe. "That's a lot of what I get throughout the lineup."

After Tavares and Nick Foligno got hurt in the playoffs last year, Kerfoot shifted to centre on the second line between Alex Galchenyuk and Nylander and produced some of his best hockey. He finished second on the team with six points in the seven games. 

"I feel comfortable in the playoffs," the Harvard product said. "I played a lot last year in the playoffs so if you're into the game, you're playing more, you feel like you can make a bit of a difference and maybe that's why I got my game going a little bit more and felt more comfortable."

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Toronto's first-round opponent may be confirmed on Thursday. 

"It's never easy when you're at this point of the season and you know you'll be starting on Monday night and you don't quite know [who you're playing]," Keefe said. "We're looking at a high probability that it's going to be Tampa, but Boston's right there."

Will Marner be scouting the Bruins and Bolts? 

"I'm going to go support our Raps, to be honest," the 24-year-old said. "I'll be supporting those guys out there tonight. It's a big game for them. I'll see what the scores are later."

The Toronto Raptors will host Game 6 of their series with the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night. Toronto is aiming to become the fourth NBA team to force a Game 7 after losing the first three. 

"It's been great to watch," Marner said. "The compete in them. The fight in them. The no quit. Regardless of who's in or out of their lineup, how guys have come in and taken on bigger roles, it's been impressive. As a fan it's been fun to watch and as a Toronto guy it's even better."

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The Leafs are hoping mental toughness will be a strength of theirs in the playoffs. It wasn't last year as they blew a 3-1 series lead against the underdog Canadiens. 

Additional experience and a strong regular season should help in that regard. So will Greg Harden. The life coach, motivational speaker and executive consultant was added as a peak performance coach. 

"When you call him, you can talk to him about anything," said Marner. "It's been a lot of relief. Everyone's got that kind of [idea], athletes in general, that we can handle anything by ourselves and it's not true. There's a lot of mental stuff that goes on behind the shades there that some people really hide. For us athletes, it's nothing to be embarrassed about or hide. You want to talk about some stuff and it's been great to have Greg, for that reason, around."

Campbell credits Harden for helping get his season back on track. The goalie is undefeated in regulation (7-0-2) since returning from a rib injury on April 2.  

"He just really gets you to want to be the best version of yourself," Campbell said with a smile. "Sorry, that's all I can give away."

Harden started working at the University of Michigan in 1986 as a student-athlete counsellor. He previously mentored star athletes like Tom Brady, Desmond Howard, Jalen Rose and Michael Phelps. 

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With a busy schedule of late with lots of travel, Thursday actually marked Toronto's first full practice since April 15. What was the focus of the 55-minute workout? 

"It was just a lot of little details offensively that we wanted to hit and make sure those were in place," said Keefe. "Get the reps, get some flow and get the guys moving cohesively. Some of that starts to slip when you're just playing games and, especially as you get tired and fatigued, you start to lose those details. You try to affirm them through video and stuff, but getting the reps in practice is important so that was a priority today."

The Leafs will hold one more practice on Sunday before the playoffs open. 

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Ondrej Kase took part in his first practice since suffering a concussion on March 19. The winger skated as a placeholder for Tavares on the second line, but was wearing a red no-contact sweater. There is no timeline for his return. 

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Lines at Thursday's practice: 

F

Kerfoot - Matthews - Marner 
Mikheyev - Nylander - Kase 
Engavll - Kampf - Blackwell  
Clifford - Spezza - Simmonds 
Abruzzese

D

Rielly - Lyubushkin 
Muzzin - Brodie 
Giordano - Liljegren 
Sandin - Holl 

G

Campbell 
Kallgren 

Power-play units at Thursday's practice: 

PP1

QB: Rielly 
Flanks: Matthews, Marner 
Middle: Nylander
Net front: Kerfoot 

PP2

QB: Giordano 
Flanks: Spezza, Liljegren
Middle: Mikheyev 
Net front: Engvall