Keefe makes some roster tweaks ahead of Leafs' Sunday matchup against Washington
After a horrendous performance against Ottawa Friday night, Sheldon Keefe shuffled his lines around at practice on Saturday. Not only did he shuffle his forwards but he made a few changes on the blueline as well.
A double-minor and six total minutes in penalties sees Pontus Holmberg move from the second line down to the fourth line between Zach Aston-Reese and Wayne Simmonds, who returns to the lineup after a week in the press box. Joey Anderson who has scored in back-to-back games has been elevated to the third line alongside David Kampf and Pierre Engvall which means that Bobby McMann is a healthy scratch. Finally, Alexander Kerfoot moves back into the second line center spot in the absence of Auston Matthews between William Nylander and Calle Jarnkrok with John Tavares between Mitch Marner and Michael Bunting again.
On the blueline, T.J. Brodie appears to be drawing back in after missing an extended amount of time due to injury and he immediately slots next to Morgan Rielly on the top pairing. With Brodie back, Keefe has reunited Mark Giordano and Justin Holl on the second pair while Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin will be the Leafs' third pair. That means that Jordie Benn and Conor Timmins are the projected scratches for tonight's game against the Capitals.
Keefe can only hope that all the changes will provide a much better and more complete game than the one the Leafs put forth on Friday night. If he doesn't like what he sees though, we could see a variety of combinations in the middle/bottom six throughout the game.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 29 | 155 ANSWERS Keefe makes some roster tweaks ahead of Leafs' Sunday matchup against Washington Will the Leafs beat the Caps tonight? | ||
| Yes | 130 | 83.9 % |
| No | 25 | 16.1 % |
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