Maple Leafs News & Rumours: McCabe, OEL, Kampf & Load Management

The Montreal Canadiens will get another shot at punching their ticket to the postseason tonight when they visit the Atlantic Division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs. The game is loaded with playoff implications. Last night, the Canadiens had a chance against the Ottawa Senators, but lost 5-2 in a frustrating game.

The Canadiens (now 39-31-9, with 87 points) saw their six-game win streak grind to a halt. It was also their first chance to clinch a playoff berth. Montreal holds a six-point cushion over the Columbus Blue Jackets for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, so things seem pretty safe for the team from Quebec. Still, the youngsters in red, white, and blue must be chomping at the bit to lock in their playoff placement sooner rather than later.

For the Maple Leafs (now 48-26-4, 100 points), every game matters for postseason placement. The team is motivated to maintain its lead atop the Atlantic Division, with just two points separating them from the Tampa Bay Lightning and four from the Florida Panthers.

Item One: Maple Leafs Shorthanded on Blue Line Against Canadiens

The Maple Leafs will head into Saturday night’s game against the Canadiens with a depleted defensive corps. Veteran defensemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Jake McCabe have been ruled out due to undisclosed injuries, leaving the Maple Leafs just five healthy blueliners.

Ekman-Larsson, who scored four goals and put up 25 assists in 77 games, will miss the game after suffering an injury during Wednesday’s overtime win against the Lightning. McCabe is expected to miss at least two more games. The 31-year-old had gathered some offensive steam with six assists over his last seven games before the setback.

Additionally, David Kampf remains out of the lineup, adding to Toronto’s depth concerns. With playoff positioning on the line and fatigue a factor for the understaffed defensive group, the Maple Leafs will need strong support from their forwards tonight to help take the pressure off the team’s rear guard.

Item Two: Load Management Lite: Smarter, Not Softer

The long and short of it is that the Maple Leafs need to manage some playing time headed into the postseason. As Maple Leafs writer Jon Steitzer noted in his post this morning, when Kampf and McCabe return, they should look at smarter, more strategic ways to ease their top-end talent into the postseason without burning them out.

He suggested that load management doesn’t need to mean healthy scratches or full nights off. It can be subtle: rolling all four lines more evenly to prevent players like Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner from logging 20-plus minutes per game, giving the second power-play unit more time on the ice (which could benefit them in the long run), and even removing Matthews and Marner from the penalty kill to reduce exposure to injury in high-contact situations. These kinds of logical, risk-aware tweaks can help balance performance with protection.