The Toronto Maple Leafs became the first team in the North division to punch their ticket to the playoffs, after defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 on Wednesday night.
Making the playoffs used to be a fairytale season for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but now its commonplace. It feels like decades ago when Connor Brown scored the go-ahead goal with only minutes remaining in Game 81 against the Pittsburgh Penguins to clinch a playoff spot.
However, that was only four years ago, and the mentality of this Leafs team is completely different. With aging veterans choosing Toronto as their destination to win a championship, it’s Stanley Cup or bust this year – deservingly so.
When you look at Toronto’s roster, there’s not too many flaws. Their top-six is one of the best in the NHL, while their sixth defenseman and recent call-up, Rasmus Sandin, is a perennial All-Star in the making. Even their back-up goalie is excelling, as Jack Campbell has a 14-2 record, .925 SV% and 2.14 GAA (stats: hockeydb.com).
Their 32-13-5 record is good enough for first place in the North Division and 69 total points puts them in a three-way tie for fifth in the entire league. Every time this team takes one step back, they seem to take two steps forward, as they’ve continued to persevere through any challenge.
It’s Time To Rest and Prepare for the Playoffs
Toronto hasn’t clinched first place in the division yet, but with one more game against Vancouver, three against Montreal, one against Ottawa (who are all inferior), and only one against Winnipeg, the division is there for the taking.
The Leafs have a nine-point advantage on the Edmonton Oilers, but they also have two games in hand, so that lead could shrink to three points if they win their next two games. It’s still possible that Edmonton could win the division, but the Leafs hold their fate in their own hands.
With six games left, Toronto should start prepping for the playoffs. Being 100 percent healthy heading into the postseason should the team’s number-one priority right now, because the last thing they’d want to see, is one of their top players get hurt.
Toronto has a lot of veteran players on their roster, so it could make sense to give all of them one night off in the last few games, as we saw last night. Even if you give one player a night off, it won’t affect the entire landscape of the team, so it doesn’t mean you’re giving up a potential win.
For example, T.J. Brodie, Jake Muzzin, Travis Dermott, Justin Holl and Morgan Rielly have all played a lot of minutes this year. With Ben Hutton on the roster now, the Toronto Maple Leafs can keep sitting one of those five defenseman and insert Hutton in the lineup to see how he performs.
Hutton is an NHL caliber defenseman, so putting him into the lineup shouldn’t change the outcome. Instead, it’ll give one of their players a night-off and will help Hutton feel more comfortable in the lineup, in case he needs to play in the playoffs.
The same logic applies to the forwards. Once Toronto can ensure that Auston Matthews has locked up the Rocket Richard Trophy, it could make sense to give a night-off, as he’s already missed a few games this year due to a nagging injury.
The rest of the young forwards shouldn’t need time off, but it may be a good idea to rest Jason Spezza, Wayne Simmonds or Joe Thornton for a game. The playoffs are going to take a ton of energy out of these players, so a night off wouldn’t be the worst idea to keep them as fresh as possible.
You obviously want to head into the playoffs with momentum, but rest is just as important. If everyone can be 100 percent healthy when the postseason starts, the Toronto Maple Leafs will have an even better opportunity to win their first playoff round since 2004, and potentially first Stanley Cup since 1967.