Sheldon Keefe pulled off a genius move on Tuesday while being scouted by Boston, Tampa
The Leafs extended their win streak to 4 straight games on Tuesday with a decisive home win against the Philadelphia Flyers. What was most impressive about the win were the lines that Sheldon Keefe used to pull it off.
While the D pairings were similar or the same as what we normally see, the forward lines were thrown into the blender. Here's a look at what Keefe rolled out with his 4 lines on Tuesday for the Buds' 5-2 win against Philly.
Mikheyev � Tavares � Blackwell
Engvall � Kerfoot � Nylander
Bunting � Abruzzese � Marner
Simmonds � Kampf � Spezza
Was this a case of Keefe just doing some mixing and matching before the playoffs to get a feel for what different guys are capable of if thrown together in a pinch during the postseason, or was there an ulterior motive behind the new-look lines?
According to Sportsnet's Luke Fox, both the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins had scouts in attendance at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday doing some work for their respective clubs ahead of the playoffs.
I'm sure there were a multitude of reasons why Keefe had elected to shuffle the deck against the lowly Flyers, but I can't help but think that, at least on some level, he was considering the fact that his team was being scouted by the competition. If that was a part of his motivation for the lineup juggling, Keefe is definitely playing chess while the Bruins and Bolts are playing checkers.
