Maple Leafs back from Christmas break with tall tasks ahead

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Hopefully, the Maple Leafs didn’t overindulge in Christmas turkey and its sleep-inducing properties.

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They came back to work Saturday morning after three days off, with a busy agenda, back-to-back divisional games against Ottawa (the first Battle of Ontario this year) and in Detroit Sunday, among many teams they have to catch for an Eastern Conference playoff spot in the second half.

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There were already some noteworthy changes at the morning skate, newly promoted Steve Sullivan replacing Marc Savard as assistant coach with a mandate to help the last-place power play and the first sighting of defenceman Brandon Carlo since foot surgery three weeks ago.

Coach Craig Berube had also changed up defensive pairs, moving Oliver Ekman-Larsson with Troy Stecher.

“We’ve talked about what we need to do and it’ll be good to get right into it.” Ekman-Larsson said.

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It will be newcomer winger Dakota Joshua’s first exposure to the provincial rivalry, re-ignited last spring when Toronto beat the Sens in six games in the opening round playoff series.

“We have to have that desperation you’d need if this was the last two games of the season,” Joshua said.

Berube knows there’ll be some rust after three days off the blades, but also expects to build off the Pittsburgh game. Saturday’s power play practice, with only 47 seconds worth of time against the Penguins in the game after Savard was fired, was jointly run by incumbent assistant Derek Lalonde and Sullivan, a 1,000-game NHL veteran who was an effective special teams’ performer for the Leafs among other clubs.

“We all knew Sully coming in from his work with the (AHL) Marlies,” Berube said. “It’s a new voice (for) some different set-ups. We don’t need to complicate anything right now, we need to get some feel back on the power play, get some chemistry going with some units we have,”

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It did appear Matthew Knies will remain on the second unit while Matias Maccelli moves up in an effort to get both forwards rolling offensively.

On changing the defence, Berube noted he now has right and left shooting pairs through the starting lineup.

“We wanted to get that (Jake McCabe – Chris Tanev) familiarity back,” Berube said of restoring them after Tanev’s long absence in Tuesday’s win over Pittsburgh. “They’ve been a great pair for a long time and Stecher has played well (warranting a stay ahead of Simon Benoit).”

Winger Easton Cowan remains in the stands a third time, though he and Benoit might get back in Sunday as will goalie Dennis Hildeby, as Joseph Woll makes his second straight start versus the Sens.

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Ottawa, which flew in Saturday morning to stretch their holiday break under NHL travel rules, has won five of its last seven games and its last four losses were all by only a goal. That includes a 3-2 defeat in overtime to Buffalo before the Christmas break.

Most importantly, the Sens want to finish ahead of Toronto in the Atlantic Division for the first time since 2016-17, when Auston Matthews arrived on the scene with a four-goal NHL debut in Ottawa. He enters Saturday with 415, five goals shy of Mats Sundin’s franchise record.

The Leafs have a lot of other cubs to pass just to get into the post-season dance for what would be an NHL-best 10th straight season. They have games in hand on eight of the clubs ahead of them in the conference.

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Saturday will be milestone NHL regular season games for two former Philadelphia Flyer teammates, Claude Giroux of the Sens (1,300) and Toronto’s Scott Laughton (700).

“It does mean something,” Laughton said. “Any time you hit a certain amount of games. Playing four years in the NHL, then going to the minors and not really sure I was coming back, grinding for awhile, i was thankful for the opportunity to get back to where I am.

“This will be a huge test for us this week (with the last game of the calendar year here against New Jersey on Tuesday), but it starts with tonight.”

Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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