No rest for Maple Leafs’ Matthews as he chases 70th goal in Tampa
Instead of resting for Toronto’s final regular-season game, Auston Matthews will try again to rustle his 70th goal.
Matthews had an eight-game goal streak stopped by Florida despite five shots on net among 12 attempts. But Keefe was leaning toward letting him play in any case.
For those who have been living on Mars for the past few weeks, Matthews is aiming to reach 70 goals for the first time since Teemu Selanne and Alex Mogilny both scored 76 in the NHL’s 1992–93 season, which was far more scorer-friendly.
Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll will be completely prepared on Saturday thanks to Keefe’s switch to goalkeeper Martin Jones, who hasn’t seen much action. Samsonov is anticipated to start.
With just 12 forwards available, NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov was used by Lightning coach John Cooper to try and reach 100 goals with one assist. The Oilers’ Connor McDavid received that point sooner.
