Three Maple Leafs out vs the Tampa Bay Lightning ahead of the playoffs

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Dave Colabelli
April 17, 2024 (6:45 PM)

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The Toronto Maple Leafs will be leaving a handful of defenseman in the pressbox tonight versus the Tampa Bay Lightning in game number 82. Three defenceman will be available tonight, Morgan Rielly, Joel Edmundson and Jake McCabe as the Leafs are resting them for Game 1 on Saturday versus their rivals, the Boston Bruins.

According to reporter David Alter, the Leafs have made the following changes ahead of their clash versus Tampa:

Sheldon Keefe says Joel Edmundson, Morgan Rielly, Jake McCabe are out tonight and the same forwards will play tonight as they did yesterday, including Auston Matthews.

Martin Jones in goal.

No changes as for the forwards, with the hopes of making Auston Matthews the first player in the 2000s to score 70 goals in a season.

Sheldon Keefe said the following on why Matthews is playing tonight and not the defenseman:

Keefe on the decision to play Matthews tonight: "We got 12 forwards so it wasn't much of a conversation quite honestly. You know, it was a brief discussion just about the idea of 11 and 7. But the reality is for me, like the 70 goal thing aside, Auston's playing good and feeling good. And, you know, if I had more guys to sit, to rest, probably wouldn't even be at the top of my list for me quite honestly. So in terms of Auston, there's not really much of a discussion there. And I like that we can get some of our defensemen to rest. Those guys have been banged up and they're important and have taken a lot on for us this season. Edmundson obviously just coming back from an injury. And we get to use the depth that we have on the back end there."