Marner not happy about being rested ahead of playoffs

The NHL is a different story. It's rather unheard of for a player to be rested or to miss a game for rest, aside from aging veterans on the second half of back-to-backs. We saw a lot of that happen ahead of the trade deadline but that's as close as the NHL gets into resting healthy players - for a legitimate reason unrelated to the salary cap anyway.

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach, Sheldon Keefe, rested 3 important players on Sunday in Mark Giordano, Jake McCabe, and Mitch Marner. The plethora of options on the back end for Toronto at the moment makes it very hard for everyone to get their playing time, so moves like that were expected, however, not for someone like Marner.

Usually the final game of the season, when everything is locked up, is when we'd see star players getting rested - even if it's not what they want. Marner spoke about it after tonight's game and while he understands the logic behind a move like that, it doesn't mean he agrees:

"It sucks... sometimes we got people in here that do all the stats and all the stuff, that I guess, that's what they're paid for and (they) make sure that we're trying to look at a bigger picture... definitely a tough one, but there's bigger things."

The Maple Leafs have already clinched a ticket into the post-season for the 7th consecutive season and home-ice advantage is all but locked in for their eventual first round matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning. They have 5 games left on the docket and not that Marner is the type to care about individual statistics but he is also very close to the 100-point milestone.

The Leafs might go back to the well in the final days of the regular season and even though hockey players don't like being scratched for "rest" purposes, it's something they have to be willing to accept with the playoffs being the "bigger picture".