Toronto Maple Leafs

Freddy says he’s ready, Sparks sent back
March 29, 2017, 3:28 PM ET [49 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs rebounded from their weekend loss in Buffalo and took one step closer to the playoffs with a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers at Air Canada Centre on Tuesday, as Auston Matthews, Leo Komarov and Zach Hyman scored and backup Curtis McElhinney made 25 saves for his 50th career win in place of starter Frederik Andersen.

Andersen, who missed his first non back-to-back start of the season on Tuesday, believes he will be ready to go for the club’s next start against the Predators in Nashville on Thursday.

“We’ll see on the plane, but (it’s) looking positive,” Andersen said before departing for Tennessee on Wednesday. “I feel ready to go.”

If given medical clearance, head coach Mike Babcock appears ready to go back to Andersen in Nashville, as Garret Sparks was sent to the Toronto Marlies after being emergency recalled earlier in the week.

“Freddy’s obviously feeling better, so we’ll talk to (goalie coach Steve Briere) on the plane and see what we are doing tomorrow.” Babcock said. "You can't play the guy when he's not ready, so we had to wait for him to be ready and he's ready now," Babcock said. "We didn't think it was a big deal, but obviously when he's not playing, it's a big deal. (McElhinney) did a good job for us last night."

Toronto maintained a one point lead on the Boston Bruins (who won 4-1 over Nashville) for third place in the Atlantic Division, moved four points ahead of the idle Tampa Bay Lightning and five points in front of New York and Carolina for the second wildcard spot.



It was once again a record setting night for Leafs rookies, as Matthews broke Wendel Clark’s 31-year-old rookie scoring record with his 35th of the season early in the first period and tied Dave Andreychuk’s club record of 14 games for scoring the game’s opening goal.

Matthews also moved ahead of Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine in the NHL rookie scoring race and tied Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby for most goals (29) at even strength.

William Nylander also extended his rookie consecutive point streak to 12 games with an assist on Matthews goal and Hyman extended his record for most short-handed goals as a rookie with his fourth of the year.




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After signing KHLer Miro Aaltonen earlier this month, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman indicates in his ’30 Thoughts’ column that the Leafs are in hot pursuit of winger Vladimir Tkachev.

The 6’0”, 203 lb winger was second in team scoring for Ak-Bars Kazan during the regular season with 32 points(15 goals, 17 assists in 58 GP) and leads the KHL club in playoff scoring with 11 points (2 goals, nine assists in 14 GP)

The Leafs have had interest in the 23-year-old since last fall, but Friedman indicates there are other NHL teams also expressing interest.