Significant changes to Leafs D pairings at practice on Tuesday
Two games into the Timothy Liljegren - Morgan Rielly experiment, it appears aa though Sheldon Keefe is ready to try something different.
As the Leafs ran drills in practice today, it was Sandin paired with Rielly instead of Liljegren, who was dropped out of the pairings completely and was skating as the 7th defenseman. It's not to say that Liljegren was playing terribly with Rielly, but he did fall awkwardly a couple of times behind the net last night and appeared to be labouring after one fall in particular.
Having Sandin play top minutes is not something he has done often but when he has played top pairing minutes -- like last season with Brodie when Rielly was out -- he did not look out of place.
Asked after practice about it, Sandin said, "its a huge opportunity" to play with Rielly and revealed that Rielly was one of the guys that took care of him in his rookie season (2019). The good news is that he will be eased into the top-2 as the Leafs take on the lowly Buffalo Sabres tomorrow night, and while they always give the Leafs a hard time, they don't hold the same fire power as teams like Florida, Tampa or Boston.
As for the 2nd and 3rd pairs, T.J. Brodie remains on the left side with Justin Holl to his right on the team's second pair after a strong outing in Washington. The 3rd pair, however, is a bit different.
As mentioned previously, Liljegren appeared to be laboring after a bit of an awkward fall on Monday, so he'll come out of the lineup, with Travis Dermott drawing back in and skating alongside newcomer Ilya Lyubushkin.
Sheldon Keefe was spotted having a chat with Liljegren at center ice after practice, but what was discussed is unknown.
| POLL | ||
MARS 1 | 415 ANSWERS Significant changes to Leafs D pairings at practice on Tuesday Do you think Rasmus Sandin is ready for top paring minutes? | ||
| Yes, he's been great | 166 | 40 % |
| No, they shouldn't rush him | 90 | 21.7 % |
| Second/third pair is fine for now | 159 | 38.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
