Craig Berube Reveals Leafs F Scott Laughton's Status Ahead of Game 1 Against Panthers

While a lot of attention is going to be focused towards Max Pacioretty for scoring the game-winning goal late in the third period of Toronto's Game 6 win over Ottawa, or towards William Nylander for his 3-point performance, Scott Laughton deserves a lot of flowers as well.

His block on Jake Sanderson's slap-shot with 25 seconds left in the game set up Nylander's empty-net tally to ice the series and send the Leafs to the second round of the playoffs. It was a gutsy play by the veteran but it showed exactly why he was brought over from the Philadelphia Flyers at the trade deadline.

With Game 1 of the second round of the playoffs set to commence on Monday night, there were several players who skipped today's optional skate, including Laughton. Many were wondering if it was an injury and whether or not it was related to the blocked shot, which was something Craig Berube quickly shot down.

In his first taste of post-season hockey since the COVID bubble in 2020, Laughton finished with 16 hits, 4 blocked shots, 2 assists, a plus-1 rating, and 51.7% success rate in the face-off dot across 14:10 ATOI in 6 contests against the Senators.

Expect more of the same fierceness and feistiness from the veteran in the second round. His game elevates when the temperature rises and you can assure yourself that that will be the case when you factor in players like Matthew Tkachuk, Brad Marchand, and Sam Bennett from the Florida Panthers.

The Maple Leafs will now begin to shift their focus towards the Panthers in what is gong to be an epic series between the two division rivals. Revenge could be on the cards after Florida took care of business against the Leafs two years when they ousted them from the second round in 5 games.