Leafs Coach Craig Berube Addresses Potential Lineup Changes Ahead of Clash With Chicago
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Photo credit: Dan Hamilton - USA Today Sports
The Maple Leafs are right back in action on Sunday evening against the Blackhawks, and Craig Berube has addressed the idea of some potential lineup changes.
The Toronto Maple Leafs came out of their nearly 2-week hiatus from the 4 Nations Face-Off with a bang after they scored 4 goals in the first period against the Carolina Hurricanes last night.
However, their quick start and solid overall play was overshadowed by a 2 and a half minute stretch in the third period where the Hurricanes notched 3 goals to cut the deficit back to 1.
Fortunately, the Leafs held their nerves and sealed the deal with empty net goals from Auston Matthews and Pontus Holmberg to send the fans home happy.
After the game, when head coach Craig Berube was asked whether or not he would be making any changes with the Leafs back in action on Sunday night, he remained non-comital about the situation but reiterated that the team played great.
"I liked everybody tonight, but I will think about that on the plane ride. The minutes were all pretty good. I think McCabe played 24, but other than that, all of our forwards were under 20. I'll think about it and make a decision tomorrow."
With the club playing in the first game of a back-to-back set, Berube laid out his ice-times relatively evenly with no forward seeing more than William Nylander's 19:58 TOI.
Defensively Jake McCabe led both teams with a game-high 24:31 TOI while Chris Tanev (22:22) and Oliver Ekman-Larsson (20:04) were the only ones outside of McCabe to touch over 20 minutes of ice time for the Leafs.
Based on the balanced ice-times, Berube had a plan set forth with a focus for Sunday's game against Chicago as well, so it will be interesting to see if he makes any changes to a unit that played a strong game outside of that 2.5 minute stretch in the third period.
With a gruelling 15-game schedule in the month of March upcoming, games like last night are extremely important and could be the norm to make sure his players don't get fatigued down the stretch.
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