Leafs Unveil Surprising New Changes to Power Play Units with the Return of Auston Matthews
The Toronto Maple Leafs unveiled a new look power play setup on Friday with the return of Auston Matthews, which may cause problems for the Lightning penalty kill.
Just over a quarter of the season has elapsed for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and due to a strong performance in the absence of Matthews, they find themselves sitting in first place in the Atlantic Division and fourth place in the Eastern Conference. With Matthews now set to return, it's an absolute game-changer for the Leafs.
While that's all well and good, their 20.3% power play conversion rate is good for 16th in the league. Not very solid, sitting smack dab in the middle of the pack. However, the fortunes with the man advantage should change with some tinkering seen at practice Friday.
According to Sportsnet's Luke Fox, the Leafs' top power play unit had five forwards on the ice. Mitch Marner was joined by William Nylander, Auston Matthews, John Tavares, and Matthew Knies, which could create potential nightmare scenarios for Tampa whenever the Leafs' top unit is on the ice on Saturday.
Power play unit number two featured Morgan Rielly, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Nick Robertson, Nikita Grebenkin, and Alex Nylander; however, the latter was only used as a placeholder for his brother, William Nylander, as he's being utilized on both units.
The two units having an entirely different composition, if it continues beyond this weekend, should keep the opposition's penalty kill guessing. While that top unit is going to be high octane offense with two primary trigger men, the second unit could have as many as 4 shooters, if you exclude Morgan Rielly as a trigger man and look at him as more of the quarterback.
The Leafs have been much better on the power play of late, and with a rested, recovered and rejuvenated Matthews back in the fold, we could see this group emerge as one of the more dangerous power plays during this next stretch of hockey as we approach the New Year.
