TORONTO — When Rasmus Sandin was sent back to the American Hockey League in mid-October, he wasn’t sure if he’d see another shift with the Toronto Maple Leafs this season.
The 19-year-old defenceman made his presence felt in his return to the NHL, earning two primary assists during Tuesday’s 7-4 victory over the New Jersey Devils.
For one night, at least, that helped ease some concerns around Toronto’s battered blue line.
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Sandin stepped right into Morgan Rielly’s spot on the second power-play unit and fired a shot through traffic that Zach Hyman tipped home just before the first intermission. That followed a play where he danced across the blue line and set up a John Tavares tip-in.
Call it a nice capper to a whirlwind stretch that saw the Swede take top defenceman honours at the recent world junior tournament before returning to Toronto for a day and setting off on a road trip to Texas with the AHL Marlies. That’s where he got the call back to the Leafs on Sunday night after Rielly fractured the inside of his foot blocking a shot.
“I was hoping for it,” he said of his second stint with the Leafs. “What I can control is just how I play, so I just wanted to play as good as I could down there [in the AHL] and also at the world juniors, and see where that lead me.”
The Leafs had a strong bounce-back effort following an 8-4 drubbing by the Panthers on Sunday night.
Auston Matthews scored a hat trick — bringing his goal total to 34, second only to David Pastrnak’s 36 league-wide — while Tavares finished with a goal and two assists. William Nylander hit the 20-goal mark for the third time in his career and Frederik Gauthier had the other for Toronto.
Blake Coleman, with three goals of his own, and P.K. Subban replied for the Devils.
