SUNRISE, Fla. — Don’t worry, Justin Holl says, the depleted Maple Leafs have a Cup-winning defence.
That would be the 2018 Calder Cup, with five members of that Marlies blue-line now thrust into major roles on the eve of what a couple of Leafs called the “most important game of the year” against the Panthers and with 17 more ahead of them down the stretch of a pressure-packed NHL playoff race.
But with a sense of excitement, adventure — and sadness that Jake Muzzin’s broken hand puts him with Morgan Rielly and Cody Ceci on the injured list — the not-ready-for-prime-time players insist they can fit the bill.
Behind senior man Tyson Barrie’s 548 NHL regular-season games, there’s Martin Marincin (222), Travis Dermott (151) Justin Holl (75), rookies Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren and 16-game journeyman Calle Rosen, reacquired from Colorado Monday and summoned from the farm Wednesday.
Barrie and Marincin have been branded weak links by critics, with Barrie facing a mountain of trade rumours before it was agreed that the pending free agent would stay at least until the end of the year.
But you wouldn’t have known there was a crisis Wednesday as the Marlies grads were reunited with Rosen and all basked in Tuesday’s 4-3 upset of the Tampa Bay Lightning after Muzzin exited in the second period. Sandin and Liljegren had a rough night, but held things together in the late going. And with the unlikely shutdown pair of Holl and the offensive-minded Dermott deployed during the last minute, the win was secured.
“There’s a lot of familiar faces for me,” said their former Marlies mentor Sheldon Keefe. “Bringing Rosen back is pretty close to the Calder-champion defence. That’s the good thing, my comfort level in these guys, my confidence. These guys are not AHL defencemen, that’s the big thing.
“If (Rosen) hadn’t been included in that (July trade to Colorado with Nazem Kadri), he’d have had a really good chance to play in the NHL this season (with the Leafs). We added him for depth and now you’re going to need him. Now other guys have taken on big minutes, big responsibilities and they’re ready for more.”
Based on Wednesday’s practice, first-round picks Sandin and Liljegren won’t be put in a vulnerable tag-team situation again. Sandin was paired with Barrie, Dermott and Holl stayed put, while Marincin will have Liljegren’s back with Holl and Marincin adding penalty killing duties. Muzzin is gone four weeks, Rielly and Ceci won’t be back soon. The Leafs are also without forwards Ilya Mikheyev and Andreas Johnsson, the latter for the rest of the season.
“It’s part of the gig, right?,” said Keefe, whose experience in the AHL through many three-game weekends with injuries and NHL call-ups saw all manner of lineup machinations. “It’s the reason you acquire depth, the reason you develop players, why you have a good and healthy minor-league system. So if these situations happen, you can press on. We’ve done it before without Rielly and Ceci and now Muzzin.”
Holl and Dermott joked that they expected journeyman Vincent LoVerde to walk through the dressing room door and complete the celebratory picture from 2018.
“It’s really been a crazy year in terms of injuries,” Holl said. “I’ve never been part of anything like this.”
He noted the Leafs have been getting it hammered into them by coaches about team defence all year anyway, so why not use the coming days as the ultimate test?
“It’s definitely a point to be emphasized now. It hurts losing three of your defenceman at any point, especially together, but we know we can step up and do it.
“Whatever your role is, play it. You don’t need to necessarily fill the person’s shoes you’re replacing, but just do what you do well.”
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