Sheldon Keefe has a message for Wayne Simmonds

It's been a roller coaster year for Toronto Maple Leafs scrappy veteran forward Wayne Simmonds, who has bounced back and forth between the big club and their American Hockey League affiliate Toronto Marlies this season a handful of times. 

Right now, he's back up with the Leafs and will apparently be suiting up for tomorrow's game against the Original 6 rival Boston Bruins. And according to head coach Sheldon Keefe, there's a key reason for that. 

Despite playing in less than ten minutes on the ice on Sunday night against the Washington Capitals, Simmonds played a role in energizing his teammates on the bench.

"When I looked at our game in Ottawa, one of the things I didn’t like in that game is that I thought, at times when things weren’t going well, we were real quiet in the game — both in our performance and on our bench," Keefe said. "That is something that Simmer brings. He livens the group."

"I really liked what he brought in that sense on the bench and such the other night. He and his line did a good job for us. I thought he brought something very similar when we played out in Boston."

Simmonds has skated in 12 games with the Leafs so far this season, collecting an assist along with 29 penalty minutes. In 1,031 career NHL games, he's scored a total of 263 goals and 262 assists, along with 1,293 penalty minutes.