Steven Lorentz Shares Thoughts on Playing on Leafs' Top Line With Matthews and Marner

"I'm used to looking a little bit lower down in the lineup for mine name," said the 28-year-old Kitchener native. "I was a little nervous at first. Anytime you're playing with guys of that caliber, it's unfortunate, but you have little bit bigger of expectations, but at the same time I'm not up there to play that skill game that those guys are so good at.

I'm there to do what I've been doing all year, use my size and my speed to try and create space. I talked to those guys individually after practice and I just said 'be a little patient with me' and they said 'absolutely, don't try to do anything out of your comfort zone, just go get pucks back and we'll do the rest, just go to the net.'

That stuff is easy for me, if I do what I'm good at, they'll do what they're good at and hopefully we can find some chemistry...

I can't try to speed up my thinking to get on their level because I just don't have that but I just need to slow it down and stick to what I'm good at -- going into those corners, winning those battles, trying to get the puck back for them...little things like that."

"I like his size, I like the way he plays the game, his pace, getting on pucks in the offensive zone, forechecking, getting to the net, things like that.

He's a simple player but I'm just looking for somebody to get in there with Matthews and Marner and create some loose puck battles and make sure he's at the net all the time and they can do their thing."