Maple Leafs practice report: Matt Murray is skating

Another new face appears.

Back from the road trip of shame, the Leafs hit the ice today for a practice ahead of tomorrow’s game vs the Flyers.

At the same time, the conditioning loans to the AHL for Timothy Liljegren and Jordie Benn have expired, so the Leafs would need to request an extension for two days to have them remain in the AHL. That seems not to be the case for Liljegren, as he is listed as back on LTIR per Cap Friendly. Jordie Benn may be remaining with the Marlies. They play tomorrow as well, in Laval.

The Leafs have also sent Wayne Simmonds (still waivers exempt from the last time) to the AHL, while Pontus Holmberg has been recalled. Simmonds is not likely to be travelling to Laval, and this is just a paper transaction on his end.

For Holmberg, it looks like he’ll be in the game on Wednesday.

The scratches:

Liljegren was skating with the Leafs today, but is not eligible to return to NHL action yet:

Very interesting to see Holmberg on the third line, but in most games those bottom two lines play interchangeable amounts of minutes.

You will see a lot of opinions out there on Holmberg’s play in the AHL lately, and I haven’t watched him, but the reports of no points to speak of while being the best forward on the team ring very true for his career. Which is to say, he’s not there to show off the sick hands. He’s there to do all those fundamentals the Leafs have been failing at pretty hard so far this year.

We’ll see how this goes tomorrow.