It’s fair to say it has been a bit of a revolving door on John Tavares’s聽left wing.
Calle J盲rnkrok, who missed most of the season recovering from sports hernia surgery, is the latest in a line of Maple Leafs forwards to get a chance with Tavares and William Nylander.
鈥淚t’s fun playing with two great players,鈥 J盲rnkrok said. 鈥淚 try to be responsible defensively, try to help out offensively in any way I can, create some space for those two. They both can score.鈥
The 33-year-old J盲rnkrok has one goal and four assists in 15 games since returning to the lineup. He has the reputation of being a smart, defensively sound forward with a sneaky good shot, but with an eye toward making the right play.
鈥淚’ve always found him really good to play with,鈥 Tavares said. 鈥淵ou have a really good sense of where he’s going to be. Positionally, he’s just so sound.鈥
J盲rnkrok knows he’s not all the way back to being the player he can be.
鈥淢y skating feels good, but my hands, I’ve got to make more plays.” he said. “But it’s coming along.鈥
Leafs coach Craig Berube has four more games to put together what looks and feels like a playoff lineup. J盲rnkrok took over from Bobby McMann, who went stone cold when put on Tavares’s wing. McMann went seven games without a point. Pontus Holmberg had a run before that.
The best fit was probably Max Pacioretty.
鈥淗e’s just another sound veteran that understands the game really well and what it brings on a night-to-night basis,鈥 Tavares said of Pacioretty. 鈥淗e’s been an all-star for a majority of his career, and he’s been able to score. But it’s just how sound he is, understanding the game. His size and the physical ability to win puck battles, and play physical and get on the forecheck has been really good.
鈥淲e just seem to understand the game really well together and we like each other.鈥
Injuries have taken a toll on the Leafs, as have the rules around who can play and when. Pacioretty has been practising for more than a week and looks ready to return, but the Leafs don’t have the cap space to remove him from long-term injured reserve. Pacioretty will have to wait for the playoffs, when the salary cap doesn’t apply.
That salary cap is affecting the Leafs in another way. Defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson is injured, joining fellow defenceman Jake McCabe and centre David K盲mpf on the sidelines. None of them are eligible to go on LTIR, which can create cap space. A player must sit out at least 10 games and 24 days to go on LTIR, and all three were injured after the 72nd game of the season, meaning none can miss 10 games.
That means the Leafs will play Montreal on Saturday with just five defencemen and 12 forwards. Playing a man short for a game will allow them to call up a blueliner for Sunday’s game in Carolina on an emergency basis. His salary won’t count against the salary cap.
So coach Berube can only do so much mixing and matching. He’s happy to reunite McMann with Max Domi and Nick Robertson, a line that can score. But he’s also happy with J盲rnkrok’s recovery.
鈥淗e can move around and work with different lines and do different things for us,鈥 Berube said. 鈥淗e’s working extremely hard. He’s doing a lot of good things that might go unnoticed.
鈥淗e’s still working to get his feet going under him. He was out a long time. He gets going for a bit and then goes through a little bit of a setback聽鈥 I do expect him to get to another level.鈥
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