A number of changes observed in the Leafs' lineup at practice with Ryan O'Reilly returning to the lineup
Last night, we saw Sheldon Keefe line up Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander together as both Tavares and Nylander have been struggling at 5-on-5 of late. The trio didn't generate any points last night, but Keefe apparently liked what he saw as he decided to keep the line together at today's practice. Keefe also elected to keep Auston Matthews with Michael Bunting and Calle Jarnkrok on the top line.
The bottom six received a notable boost at practice, however, as Ryan O'Reilly, who has been out for the last month with a broken finger, took part in his first full contact practice. O'Reilly slotted in on the third line with Alexander Kerfoot and Noel Acciari while David Kampf centered Zach Aston-Reese and Sam Lafferty.
On the blueline, Keefe reverted back to his shutdown pairing of T.J. Brodie and Jake McCabe while Morgan Rielly found himself with paired. once again, with the veteran Luke Schenn. Mark Giordano reunited with Justin Holl and Erik Gustafson also joined the team in his first practice since March 30th after tending to a personal matter. He was paired with Timothy Liljegren, who once again finds himself on the outside looking in on the team's 4th pair.
With the return of O'Reilly, expect Keefe to work towards finalizing his lineup for Game 1 against Tampa and over the next couple of games we should see less shuffling of the defensive pairings as well. I wouldn't be surprised, in fact, if today's lineup at practice is the one we see kicking things off in the playoffs.
| POLL | ||
5 AVRIL | 300 ANSWERS A number of changes observed in the Leafs' lineup at practice with Ryan O'Reilly returning to the lineup What is your favourite Leafs D pairing from this list? | ||
| Rielly/Schenn | 99 | 33 % |
| McCabe/Brodie | 168 | 56 % |
| Giordano/Holl | 28 | 9.3 % |
| Gustafsson/Liljegren | 5 | 1.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
