Leafs Forced to Shuffle Lines at Practice Amid William Nylander's Absence
After a two-goal performance on Saturday, William Nylander was absent from practice on Tuesday, forcing the Leafs to shuffle their lines ahead of Wednesday's game.
While the Leafs got good news on Tuesday with the return of John Tavares to practice and Joseph Woll appearing to be on the mend, the Leafs also got disappointing news regarding William Nylander.
Nylander missed practice due to illness on Tuesday, which is just as Tavares was held out of the home opener on the weekend. It appears that the flu-like virus is making its way around the Leafs' dressing room.
Amid Nylander's absence from practice, the Leafs were forced to shuffle their middle-six. Tavares returned to his spot in the middle on the second line, but was flanked by Nicholas Robertson and Pontus Holmberg, while Max Domi centered a third line that featured Bobby McMann and Max Pacioretty. The Leafs' top line of Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies and Mitch Marner, as well as the fourth line of Steven Lorentz, David Kampf and Ryan Reaves remained intact.
Following practice, head coach Craig Berube gave an update on Nylander's status for Wednesday's game saying it was ' up in the air'. Berube also acknowledge the illness is making its way through the team right now, so we could very well see more line shuffling ahead of tomorrow's game or even later in the week, depending how well the Leafs have contained it.
Ahead of Wednesday's game against the LA Kings, defenseman Timothy Liljegren appears set to make his season debut after being a healthy scratch for the first three games. He has skated alongside Simon Benoit on the Leafs' third pairing at the last two practices with Conor Timmins coming out of the lineup.
In terms of a starting goalie for Wednesday, that remains unknown, but after three days off, it would not be a surprise to see Anthony Stolarz play his third game in seven days.
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