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One and go.
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That’s the extent of John Tavares’ absence from the Maple Leafs lineup, as the team captain looks good to return Friday night against the Calgary Flames in the annual Hockey Hall of Fame game at Scotiabank. Sand.
After sitting down in Philadelphia on Wednesday, an impressive 3-0 Leafs win against the Flyers, with a lower body injury, Tavares came back between Alex Kerfoot and Mitch Marner at the Leafs morning skating on Friday.
“It felt good this morning,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We will have Joey Anderson to warm up just in case, but (Tavares) is getting ready to play.”
Tavares has been excellent recently for Toronto, which is 6-1-0 in its last seven games. In his last six games, Tavares has 10 points (six goals and four assists).
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The hot streak came after Tavares had just three points in the first seven games of the 2021-22 season.
“Just because he stuck with it, he wasn’t discouraged,” Keefe said, referring to what he has liked about Tavares’ game.
“He hasn’t missed a beat on defense. That’s something we talked about a lot last season, it’s the improvements John has made on defense and how reliable and consistent he’s been.
“Whether he’s thriving and scoring at as high a rate as he is now, or it wasn’t for him earlier in the season, defensively, it’s been great for us.”
The game against Calgary kicks off a straight set for the Leafs, who play in Buffalo against the Sabers on Saturday night.
Goalie Joseph Woll has been with the Leafs for the past week as Petr Mrazek recovers from his latest groin injury, but Keefe made no public commitment to say that Woll would be the starter at Buffalo.
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If Woll is in the net against the Sabers, it would be the 23-year-old NHL debut.
“We’re going to focus on today, and Jack (Campbell) is going to play today,” Keefe said. “We have a plan, but we will wait until we have all the information before executing it.”
The Flames (7-3-3) come into Friday night after cooling off after a six-game winning streak. They have lost four of their last five games, including a 4-2 loss Thursday night in Montreal against the Canadiens.
That mattered little to the Leafs (8-5-1).
“They’ve been playing great all season,” forward Alex Kerfoot said. “They work very hard up and down the lineup and have skilled players who can make you pay, so we know this is a great test for us.”
Dan Vladar is expected to be in the Flames network after Jacob Markstrom played in Montreal.
The Leafs’ projected lineup on Friday night:
FORWARD
LW-C-RW
Michael Bunting-Auston Matthews-William Nylander
Alex Kerfoot-John Tavares-Mitch Marner
Pierre Engvall-David Kampf-Ondrej Kase
Nick Ritchie-Jason Spezza-Wayne Simmonds
DEFENDING
Morgan Rielly-TJ Brodie
Jake Muzzin-Justin Holl
Rasmus Sandin-Timothy Liljegren
OBJECTIVES
Jack campbell
Joe woll
Reference-torontosun.com