Rasmus Sandin and the Capitals return to Toronto amid short-handed Maple Leafs lineup

After their underwhelming 6-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs are down to just 11 games on the schedule before the playoffs begin. As they start the final three weeks of the regular season tonight, they’ll take on the Washington Capitals for the third and final meeting.

It’s taken until the final stretch, but Rasmus Sandin will return to the city that drafted him 29th overall in the 2018 draft for the first time since being dealt to the Capitals ahead of the 2023 trade deadline.

The 24-year-old blue-liner has already played his former team. Still, tonight marks his first visit to Toronto since he played his final home game for the blue and white on February 18th, 2023, which was Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari’s first game as a Maple Leaf.

Anyway, if you looked at this game on the calendar two months ago, you may have thought that this game was just another regular season game on the schedule with probably no playoff implications. However, it’s now the total opposite. Washington has turned their season around, going 13-5-1 in their last 19 games, and currently holding onto the second wild card spot with 81 points, two points ahead of Detroit with a game in hand.

Toronto, however, has hit a mini bump in the road over their past ten games, going 5-4-1, while a team like Tampa Bay, who is 8-1-1 in their last ten games, is suddenly two points back despite playing an extra game. The playoff race is still kind of close. If things go correctly, Toronto could pull off the comeback and win the Atlantic division or finish second ahead of Boston or Florida, pending those teams losing at the same rate Toronto wins the bulk of their remaining 11 games.

But it won’t be an easy final 11 games for Toronto, especially tonight. The team is still without two important wingers, Mitch Marner and Calle Jarnkrok, they will be without recently acquired Joel Edmundson, who has already been ruled out for tonight and Saturday night’s game with an injury, and Morgan Rielly, who missed Tuesday’s game with a minor injury, is listed as day-to-day.