Projected lineup for the Leafs for Game 3 announced
The Leafs have their work cut out for them, any way you slice it. The Florida Panthers took out the Presidents Trophy winning Boston Bruins in Round 1 and now hold a commanding 2-0 series lead on the Leafs. The silver-lining here is that the Leafs have played very well and have even nearly doubled the Panthers in high-danger scoring chances. Now it's about sticking with it and converting on their chances.
We knew, following Game 2, that there would be at least one roster change for the Buds ahead of Game 3. Matthew Knies was injured in the 1st period of Game 2 after an altercation with Sam Bennett left him with a concussion. Here's how the lines looked for the Leafs today in practice:
Bunting - Matthews - Marner Jarnkrok - Tavares - Nylander Kerfoot - O'Reilly - Acciari Aston-Reese - Kampf - Lafferty Simmonds
The pairings remain unchanged for the most part, but we could see Erik Gustafsson draw back in for the Leafs for Game 3, with the Leafs likely to go with an 11F/7D setup.
Rielly - Schenn McCabe - Brodie Giordano - Liljegren Gustafsson - Holl Timmins
As far as how we know that Gustafsson will draw in for the injured Knies, Gustafsson was quarterbacking the Leafs' 2nd PP unit at practice on Saturday. Typically, when a player is taking regular reps on special teams, it's usually a pretty good indicator that he is expected to play. As far as how the PP units look without Knies, here's how the Leafs had drawn up the assignments:
PP1Rielly, Matthews, Marner, O'Reilly, Tavares
PP2Gustafsson, Kerfoot, Jarnkrok, Nylander, Bunting
The Leafs desperately need a win tomorrow night in Florida if they want to have any shot at winning this series. A win tomorrow brings the series to 2-1 in favour of Florida, while a loss means that the Panthers would have a 3-0 stranglehold on the Buds. That's a scenario that Sheldon Keefe and his team will want to avoid.
