Leafs look to get healthy as playoffs approach
Marner practises but not yet ready for game action
With a few Maple Leafs still banged up, opportunity continues to knock for others.
Winger Mitch Marner, who looked very spry at Friday’s first full practice and spoke to the media for the first time since an ankle injury on March 7, was later ruled out of getting back for Saturday’s game in Buffalo by coach Sheldon Keefe.
Morgan Rielly is still not practising, but “progressing” toward a return to the ice Saturday, though Keefe was more vague on Joel Edmundson and Timothy Liljegren, listing both defenders as “week to week”, but apparently not expected to miss the entire 10-game wrap of regular season with games April 16-17.
Keefe wants to see Marner go hard in at least one more practice, though the next one isn’t until Tuesday between home games against Florida and Tampa Bay.
Marner was surprisingly combative with reporters about the exact nature of the injury, hinting the widely reported high ankle sprain is incorrect, without elaborating.
“You guys can say whatever you want, but it’s behind me now.”
The lost time means no hope he’ll reach 100 points after being halted at 99 last season. He’s 26 points shy of triple figures with nine games to go after Saturday.
“You have set goals, but at the same time you want to win as many games as possible and help your team get in good position for playoffs. It has been fun watching the guys give it their all (5-3-1 without him in the lineup).”
Nick Robertson, Noah Gregor, Pontus Holmberg and newcomer Connor Dewar are all getting extra time at five-on-five and special teams with Marner out, while blueliners Mark Giordano, TJ Brodie and Conor Timmins all stepped up in Thursday’s 5-1 win over Washington.
“Guys have done a good job stepping in throughout the lineup,” defenceman Jake Mccabe said. “There has been a lot of change in the back end, guys stepping in and out. Some of our best games this year frankly have been when we’re short-handed. That’s a good sign.”
Now that Giordano has played for the first time since missing 12 games with a concussion and Brodie is through any bruised ego from being a healthy scratch for the first time as a Leaf, Keefe can build up up Timmins’ game again. He’s trying to have all nine defenceman on the roster ready for the first round.
“Conor has been through a lot (like Giordano) with his injuries, mononucleosis and all sorts of things. He got caught up in the numbers game a little bit,” said Keefe.
“But we’ve needed him in here of late. He’s giving everything he has and still be true to who he is in terms of making plays, moving the puck, getting it to the net. We knew he could compete in the NHL, but he can defend? He’s working hard to do that.
“It’s been a good stretch of games for him and that will continue, a good development for him and for us. It’s the kind of things that come out of when there are injuries, you get opportunities for others. This is Conor’s time and he has to continue to stay with that.”
Brodie has been another Leaf who has been off the radar a few days.
YOU WANT TO WIN AS MANY GAMES AS POSSIBLE AND HELP YOUR TEAM GET IN GOOD POSITION FOR PLAYOFFS.
“No one wants to be out of the lineup, you just try and move on,” he said. “Before the (March 19) Washington game, Keefer said, ‘Take the day, get some rest.’ When you get a chance, you take advantage, spend some time with the family, get away from the game that way.”
The Leafs have signed defenceman Simon Benoit to a three-year contract extension.
The average annual value of the deal is US$1.35 million, the team said Friday.
Benoit, 25, has one goal and four assists in 54 games this season.
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound native of Laval, Que., has 20 points (5-15) in 191 career regular-season games with the Maple Leafs and the Anaheim Ducks.