Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe makes bold lineup decision ahead of Saturday's clash with the Sabres
The Leafs had a golden opportunity to snap the New Jersey Devils' 10-game winning streak on Thursday and extend their own to 3 games. However, a costly giveaway by captain John Tavares in overtime ended up in the back of the net for the Buds and just like that, the Devils have won 11 straight and the Leafs head into Saturday's game against Buffalo coming off of a loss.
During practice on Friday, both Wayne Simmonds and Nick Robertson remained in grey "extras" jerseys, indicating that they'd likely be healthy scratches for the team once again. It was also believed that after 2 starts in a 3-day span that the Leafs would give Matt Murray the night off on Saturday and start Erik Kallgren instead. Well, following practice, Keefe said the Buds would go with Murray again tonight. He also said he hadn't come to a decision on any roster changes as of yet.
Well, apparently now he has. Per Keefe on Saturday morning, the Leafs will make no changes to the roster after losing to the Devils. That means that Robertson will remain in the press box tonight in favour of playing rookie Pontus Holmberg in his 4th game of the season. This also means that the head coach has liked what he's seen from the Matthews/Nylander and Tavares/Marner tandems.
When all is said and done and the lineup for tonight's game is made official, we're like to see:
Bunting/Matthews/Nylander
Kerfoot/Tavares/Marner
Engvall/Holmberg/Jarnkrok
ZAR/Kampf/Malgin
Rielly/Benn
Giordano/Holl
Sandin/Liljegren
Murray
Kallgren
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 19 | 323 ANSWERS Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe makes bold lineup decision ahead of Saturday's clash with the Sabres How do you feel about Pontus Holmberg being in the lineup over Nick Robertson? | ||
| Robertson should be in | 148 | 45.8 % |
| Holmberg belongs in the lineup | 48 | 14.9 % |
| Both should be playing | 110 | 34.1 % |
| Neither should be playing | 17 | 5.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
