Leafs announced a pair of line changes ahead of Tuesday's game in Dallas; Keefe provides important update on T.J. Brodie
After an off day yesterday, the Leafs practiced this afternoon in Dallas in preparation for their game tomorrow against the Stars. There were a couple of surprising changes to their lines at practice with a surprising appearance from an injured blueliner.
Lines one to three remained the same, but rookie call-up Semyonov Der-Arguchintsev skated on the fourth line with Zach Aston-Reese and Pontus Holmberg, taking over for Wayne Simmonds. SDA projects to make his NHL debut tomorrow. On the back end, Mac Hollowell will come out of the lineup as Conor Timmins is expected to make his Leafs debut alongside Victor Mete on the third pair. While he won't be playing tomorrow, Hollowell did have the opportunity to skate alongside the recovering T.J. Brodie.
Brodie returned to practice for the first time in weeks since being a game-time scratch with an oblique injury. While the top paring of Mark Giordano and Justin Holl has done an admirable job in his and Morgan Rielly's absence, getting Brodie back will be a huge boost to the top pair.
As far as Brodie's recovery timeline goes, while he won't play on Tuesday, Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe mentioned on Monday that Brodie has not yet been ruled out for Thursday's game against the visiting Los Angeles Kings.
| POLL | ||
5 DECEMBRE | 212 ANSWERS Leafs announced a pair of line changes ahead of Tuesday's game in Dallas; Keefe provides important update on T.J. Brodie Will T.J. Brodie make it back into the lineup on Thursday against the Kings? | ||
| Yes | 103 | 48.6 % |
| No | 109 | 51.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
