Michael Pezzetta will get another chance to make a impression for the Maple Leafs.
And Leafs coach Craig Berube knows what he is looking for.
The pugnacious Pezzetta will be in the lineup on Tuesday night when the Leafs take on the Bruins in Boston at the TD Garden.
“I just think Boston and what they bring in this building, we are going to need some physicality,” Berube told media in Boston. “That’s why he is in.”
It will be Pezzetta’s third game since he was recalled from the Toronto Marlies. He had one fight and nine penalty minutes in total in his first two games.
Berube said Pezzetta will take the lineup spot of winger Calle Jarnkrok, who will be scratched. Defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson will play after he departed practice early on Monday and Morgan Rielly will return after missing one game with a lower-body injury. Berube didn’t say which D-man will be scratched.
Anthony Stolarz will start in goal for the Leafs and Jeremy Swayman gets the call in net for the Bruins.
It’s the mentors trip for the Leafs, before the club returns home to take on the New York Rangers on Wednesday night. Rielly has brought along former teammate Jake Gardiner.
Fraser Minten ‘still growing’
The game will be another opportunity for 21-year-old centre Fraser Minten to show that it was a mistake for the Leafs to trade him to the Bruins a year ago.
“He’s still growing, he is still a kid, but he’s been excellent,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm told media on Tuesday. “Fun to watch, fun to be a part of, to see him grow as a man on and off the ice. We’re going to continue to push him because he is not there yet, but he has made some nice strides.
“As an overall player, there is always room (for growth). Look at him, he looks like a 15-year-old. That means there is a lot to fill with his body.”
Minten is on the top Bruins line with David Pastrnak on his right.
“It’s nice to be in really meaningful games every night right now and it’s a super-fun team,” Minten said. “It has been a fun year, so hopefully we can keep it going into the post-season.”
The Bruins go into the game in the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Leafs are 14 points out.
As for what was made of the post-game comments by Easton Cowan and Berube in Ottawa on Saturday night after the loss to the Senators — too much, in our opinion — it sounds like the two are on the same page.
Cowan said that night that the Sens’ early power-play goal “deflated us a bit.” Berube responded to media that he didn’t understand the deflated feeling and that it was a “copout.”
Berube had this to say on Tuesday: “I think Easton is handling everything fine. He makes mistakes and understands them and wants to correct them. But that’s not going to make him play a different game.
“He is the type of kid who is going to go out and do what he does best. There are going to be mistakes and we all know that, but he has to keep doing that. He’s just maturing.”
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