Earlier today Michael Bunting, Rasmus Sandin and Ondrej Kase joined the Leafs' optional skate. It was known none would be playing tonight, but the team was no doubt pleased with their progress. Before the game tonight, Chris Johnston was on TSN1050 and provided an update on the three.
On Bunting, Johnston said that it is a possibility he plays in Game 1 on Monday night, but not a foregone conclusion. However, given how things were looking originally for Bunting, this has to be considered a huge win, even if he doesn't play.
Kase appears close to a return for the Leafs as well according to CJ. He is not expected to be ready for Game 1, but would be available at some point during round 1. Kase hasn't played since suffering a concussion in Nashville back in March, but has made significant progress the past couple weeks.
As for Sandin, Johnston reported that he is close to being ready physically, but with the backlog on the Leafs blue line currently, CJ believes that it would take an injury to get him into the lineup. The Leafs are getting healthy at the right time and we all know that the more depth a team has in the playoffs the better.
