Sheldon Keefe addresses the elephant in the room with Michael Bunting coming back; some potential line combinations for Game 5
The Leafs and Leafs Nation in its entirety are still riding the high of a thrilling come-from-behind win on Monday after the team erased a 3-goal deficit with just over 10 minutes remaining in the third period to force overtime, where Alexander Kerfoot would play the unlikely OT hero, capping off a 5-4 overtime win, sending the Leafs back to Toronto with a 3-1 series lead over the Lightning.
One of the biggest storylines heading into last night's game was that Michael Bunting, who was serving a 3-game suspension for clipping Tampa defenseman Erik Cernak in the head in Game 1, was eligible to return following Game 4. The big question was, who would come out of the lineup?
Well, Sheldon Keefe was asked about Bunting on Tuesday and admitted that he's still very unsure about how to adjust his roster to fit Bunting back into the picture. He did, however, confirm that he would not even consider sitting 20-year-old rookie sensation Matthew Knies.
"With Bunting being available, it's a very good option, he's a good player for us. It's not as easy or as simple a decision as it may have been earlier in the series. We will take our time and sort through it. We have a group of guys who have played real hard." - Keefe on Knies and Bunting
The most likely outcome here is that one of Sam Lafferty or Zach Aston-Reese will sit in order to make room for Bunting to re-enter the lineup. Lafferty has one lone assist through 4 games thus far, and took a brutal penalty for cross-checking Ross Colton in the face in Game 3, which could have proven costly for the Leafs under different circumstances. Aston-Reese has been limited to just 1 point in the series as well, a goal in Game 2 in a 7-2 blowout win.
The problem here is that both Aston-Reese and Lafferty play a two-way game, whereas Bunting is more offensively adept than defensively responsible. Lafferty also possesses blazing speed that can burn the opposition if they're not careful.
I could see Keefe bringing Bunting back and going with something like:
Bunting/Matthews/Nylander
Jarnkrok/Tavares/Marner
Knies/O'Reilly/Acciari
Kerfoot/Kampf/Lafferty
Another option would be to shift Kerfoot over to the right wing if Keefe wants to keep Aston-Reese in and adjusting the bottom six to look like:
Knies/O'Reilly/Kerfoot
Aston-Reese/Kampf/Acciari
If Keefe is really feeling saucy, he might even look to play Bunting in the bottom six, limiting his minutes to avoid him being targeted by the officials for the duration of this series. In that case, we could see Knies moving up to play with Tavares and Marner, and shifting Jarnkrok up to the top line while Bunting saddles up with O'Reilly and Acciari on line 3. That way, if Tampa is out looking for retribution on Bunting, at least he'll be on the ice with someone like Acciari who can certainly help out in the scrums.
Jarnkrok/Matthews/Nylander
Knies/Tavares/Marner
Bunting/O'Reilly/Acciari
Aston-Reese/Kampf/Kerfoot (or Kerfoot/Kampf/Lafferty)
One thing is for sure, the Leafs having this much quality depth is an absolute blessing. There aren't very many "weak" combinations in this group.
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AVRIL 25 | 783 ANSWERS Sheldon Keefe addresses the elephant in the room with Michael Bunting coming back; some potential line combinations for Game 5 Where should Leafs winger Michael Bunting play in Game 5? | ||
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| 4LW or press box | 606 | 77.4 % |
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