It's all but official now: Luke Schenn has made the Leafs as a teenage defenceman.Leafs coach Ron Wilson made his enthusiasm for the 18-year-old's play quite clear last night after a solid, 4-2 win over Boston in which Schenn stood up for Matt Stajan and the rest of his teammates after Stajan was hammered on a hit by Bruins defenceman Dennis Wideman.
"He'll more than likely stay, but I can't guarantee it," Wilson said of Schenn, who has been the best story in Toronto since training camp, but could be sent back to junior under NHL contract guidelines. "He's a sponge, and he wants to get better.
"And he has to be a big hit in the dressing room the way he jumped in their for Matt."
Stajan concurred with his coach, but the Leafs must first decide if they want to keep Schenn past nine games in the NHL, the limit at which they must honour the first year of his contract or return him to junior.
That seems a formality now, since Schenn's play has made him one of the Leafs' top four defencemen.
"That showed a lot about him, and I definitely have to buy him a few dinners now, I owe him," said Stajan, who was rocked, but not injured, by the first-period hit.
"That's what this team has to be all about. We have to stick up for each other, we're a big family, we're all brothers and it's great when your youngest guy backs you up like that."
Schenn's character put an exclamation point on a night full of character-building efforts.
Stajan came back to pick up an assist on Nik Antropov's tying goal in the second period. Anton Stralman scored the winner in the third period, while Nik Hagman, with an empty netter, and Mike Van Ryn, had the other Toronto goals.
The winner was sweet vindication for Stralman, who inadvertently tipped a Blake Wheeler centring pass into his net in the first period, putting the Leafs in a 2-0 hole.
"It was fun to score, but I wasn't thinking about what happened before," Stralman said. "Sometimes you get lucky and my goal was lucky, and the other goal (into his net) was unlucky."
Van Ryn, like Stralman, bagged his first goal of the season. Van Ryn was also slammed through the glass thanks to a thunderous hit from Milan Lucic on the first shift of the second period.
"I didn't think I was hit that hard. I knew there was glass down in my equipment," said Van Ryn, who left the ice and cleaned up in the dressing room before returning.
"It's one of those things that happens, and I've seen it happen to other players but I've never had something like that happen to me. It wasn't like I was hurt or anything.
"He (Lucic) is a big guy and I guess the glass just exploded. The training staff vacuumed my equipment and I changed my undershirt and went out again, and that was it."
The game also marked another instalment of Wilson's accountability principle as the coach benched Jason Blake and welcomed back Ryan Hollweg from a three-game suspension for boarding.
The Leafs outshot an opponent and came back from a 2-0 first period deficit for the second game in a row. But the real buzz in the dressing room, beyond the big-time bodychecks and the triumphant comeback, was "the kid."
"Who stepped in there, eh, and how old is he ...?" Wilson said of Schenn and the fact he stood up for Stajan. "He's done everything anyone would want on your team, let alone an 18-year-old."
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