Tag: Zach Aston-Reese

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Maple Leafs hint at two major lineup changes for Game 6.

Daniel Lea/CSM/Zuma

The Toronto Maple Leafs are hoping to break the curse tonight and advance past the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs by knocking off the Tampa Bay Lightning in 6 games. The Lightning have proven to be a resilient foe however and have already staved off elimination, and of course the Leafs have the added pressure of having a gigantic monkey on their back.

It looks like head coach Sheldon Keefe intends to pull out all the stops for Game 6 in his effort to get his team over that hurdle, with the Leafs hinting at a pair of very significant lineup changes on Saturday morning.

The first hint came to us courtesy of TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie, who on Saturday morning noticed that forward Michael Bunting did not remain on the ice with the extras during the Leafs morning skate. This appears to indicate that Keefe will be re-introducing Bunting into the series after he earned himself a costly suspension for a hit delivered to Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak.

Perhaps an even bigger change though was the second one hinted at during the Leafs morning skate, with Leafs defenseman Justin Holl taking part in the optional skate. This has led to a belief that he could be a healthy scratch in favor of defenseman Timothy Liljegren, a change that many expected to see Sheldon Keefe make earlier in this series.

Timothy Liljegren has been out of action for 16 days and has not appeared in a single game during this series, so this would be a risk on the part of the Maple Leafs head coach.

When he was questioned about his lineup, Keefe opted not to give any information at all.

“I’m not going to take any questions on the lineup,” said Keefe.

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Tough wakeup call awaits Matthew Knies

The Toronto Star

The Toronto Maple Leafs not only lost their opening Stanley Cup Playoff game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in dominating fashion, but also lost forward Michael Bunting for the next three. 

The feisty sophomore forward was suspended for the next three after he was thrown from last night’s tilt after catching Lightning defenceman Erik Cernak up high with what appeared to be his elbow.

“He has put himself into a bad spot, but we have options if needed and we will move things around,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said of Bunting. “We think (Matthew Knies) is a great option for us. In the games that he has played, I think he did a good job. He’s taken care of all he can do in the short amount of time he has been here.”

Not long after the decision came down from the NHL Department of Player Safety, speculation began to grow that forward Matthew Knies, who was recently inked to a three year entry level deal after completing his season at the University of Minnesota, could replace Bunting in the lineup. 

“We think he’s a great option for us,” Keefe said of Knies. “We brought him in here for a reason and gave him (regular-season) games for a reason.”

“That’d be awesome,” Knies himself stated about potentially playing in Game 2. “Every kid’s dream is to play in the playoffs and play for the Stanley Cup, so I’d be super-stoked and pumped to be a part of it and just try to contribute.”

He’ll have to expect major differences between playing at the collegiate and professional levels, however.

“Instead of a 24-year-old, you have a 28-year-old bearing down on you who’s been in the league for eight years,” Zach Aston-Reese explained. 

“Baptism by fire,” Aston-Reese continued. “You learn quick. With one game, you realize, ‘Oh, s—.’”

Tomorrow’s Game 2 between the Maple Leafs and Lightning will get underway starting at 7:30 PM EST from Scotiabank Arena. 

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Zach Aston-Reese reaches new career high with Leafs

NHL.com

The Toronto Maple Leafs are getting the most out of forward Zach Aston-Reese, who first arrived at training camp last fall on a professional tryout. And while he’s occasionally been made a healthy scratch, he’s made his return to the lineup matter.

During last night’s game against the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets, he tallied his career high 10th goal in what would eventually be a 4-2 triumph for the Leafs. And you can bet that he was feeling good about being a contributor afterward.

“It’s pretty special,” he explained in his postgame presser. “It was a long summer not knowing what was going to happen. I always believed in myself and it’s nice to be in a place that believes in me.”

“I know they want me to be physical and finishing checks, and it doesn’t have to be blowing up guys every night. It’s just being stiff and aggressive on the puck,” he continued.

Meanwhile, head coach Sheldon Keefe was full of praise for how Aston-Reese has handled himself in the last couple of weeks.

“I would say it has been more than a couple of weeks,” Keefe said. “He has been excellent, I would say, from the trade deadline and maybe even a week or two before the trade deadline. He has really settled in. He has played a lot of time with Kampf. The guys have really had some great chemistry. They are talking a lot. They know what the expectation is and what we need from them. He has scored some good goals for us which has got his confidence going offensively. He is scoring the right kind of goals for a guy like him.”

“He is not getting odd-man rushes or anything like this. He is working for it. He is around the net, whether it is pucks hitting him, him tipping it, or finding pucks in the slot.”

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Maple Leafs explain what went wrong vs. Panthers

The Globe and Mail

The lasting image of last night’s game at Scotiabank Arena between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the visiting Florida Panthers will be Panthers bench boss Paul Maurice absolutely exploding on his squad for what he clearly felt was a lack of effort during a break in the 2nd period.

That seemed to wake up the Panthers, who are scrapping and clawing (no pun) towards securing a playoff spot in the tightly contested Eastern Conference. It would eventually be Brandon Montour playing the role of hero for Florida, scoring in overtime to secure a valuable extra point that was also made possible thanks to a strong 38 save performance from goaltender Alex Lyon. 

Florida now sits just one point out of the final Wild Card postseason spot, while the Leafs have already locked up their postseason reservation.

“Played a good game,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said afterward in his postgame media session. “Didn’t score enough to win and then made some mistakes at the end. Cost us the extra point.”

However, a stat that fans will immediately notice is that the Leafs were unable to score on four separate power play opportunities, which could have proven to be the difference in the game.

“Not great,” said Auston Matthews on being unable to cash in with the man advantage. “Just a little bit disconnected there and maybe over-complicating things at times instead of just keeping it a little more simple and breaking them down at the start and then letting things open up.”

“Rather have it happen now than in the playoffs,” explained Zach Aston-Reese of giving up the lead. “Six-on-four situation, you know it’s going to happen again for sure. Definitely something we can watch the tape and learn from and hopefully down the stretch be a lot better at.”

The Leafs will be back in action when they visit the rival Ottawa Senators in the Canadian capital city on Saturday evening.