Leafs confirmed to be considering an important change in the second half of the season
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As we near the halfway point in the season, coaches have had a chance to gauge how their team is performing and while some have already made some significant roster changes, others are currently pondering how they can optimize their current lineups. The Leafs are among the teams who are considering some changes, namely in how they deploy their lines.
In their game against the New York Islanders last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs used their bottom-six a lot more than they have in the past as the Islanders matched their fourth line against the Auston Matthews' line. It forced Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe to rely on the third and fourth lines more and, following the game, he had some high praise for their efforts recently.
"No doubt. The Kampf line again tonight was really good. It is a tough night for that group. For them and Domi, the matchups are going to be tough. They matched their fourth line against Matthews the entire night. That is going to create some tough matchups for the rest of our lineup when our best people are going up against other lines. Clearly, the opposition tonight really trusts their fourth line. Matthews is a top center in the league, and they are going head-to-head against him. When you can have that within your team, it allows you to really get some mismatches through the rest of your lineup. It is an important development for us."
The Islanders are notorious for playing their fourth line as much as their first line some nights, but as Keefe said, having a bottom-six you can trust to throw on the ice at any point in time is something the Leafs have not had in a long-time. There have been certain players in the bottom-six that Keefe has relied on more, but never really a full line, even dating back to November and December, when Keefe would often dress Ryan Reaves just to play him for 6 or 7 minutes and then allow some of the team's stars to take on extra shifts on the 4th line.
We'll see what the more immediate future holds for the Leafs as they have a back-to-back against Colorado and Detroit this weekend. It will be interesting to see whether Keefe continues to rely on his 3rd and 4th lines or if he goes back to running Matthews and Marner until the wheels fall off, leaving them gassed late in games.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 12 | 876 ANSWERS Leafs confirmed to be considering an important change in the second half of the season Does Ryan Reaves still have a place on this Leafs roster? | ||
| Yes | 182 | 20.8 % |
| No | 694 | 79.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
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