Two key players out for the Leafs, Keefe forced to make significant tweaks to the lineup
The Toronto Maple Leafs have had a flu bug going around the room over the past week or so, which forced John Tavares and Mitch Marner to miss Tuesday's game against the St. Louis Blues. It also forced William Nylander to miss practice Wednesday and head coach Sheldon Keefe to send Auston Matthews home early from their game day skate Thursday.
All four played on Thursday night despite the original theory that the Leafs perhaps heading into Thursday's matchup with the Flyers without any of the Core 4. Thankfully, each appeared to be fine, particularly Matthews, who had a natural hat trick in just over 7 minutes in the second period and Nylander who had the overtime winner.
Unfortunately, Tavares was absent from the team's full skate on Saturday morning, which forced Keefe to shuffle up his forward lines. He left the Matthews/Marner/Matthew Knies line intact, but inserted Max Domi between Tyler Bertuzzi and the aforementioned Nylander. Pontus Holmberg was seen skating with Bobby McMann and Nicholas Robertson, while Ryan Reaves draws back in on the fourth line with Noah Gregor and David Kampf.
With no Tavares, it will be interesting to see how much Keefe shuffles lines throughout the game and if he chooses to go back to the Bertuzzi/Domi/Robertson line that was very successful Tuesday against St. Louis - though it does bear mentioning that the trio was not nearly as effective on Thursday against Philadelphia and did not remain together all game.
The Leafs will be without defenseman Mark Giordano as he mourns the loss of his father, meaning Maxime Lajoie, who was recalled this morning, will draw in on the third pair with William Lagesson. Timothy Liljegren skated on the top pair with T.J. Brodie and new fan favourite Simon Benoit remains on a shutdown pair with Jake McCabe.
The big storyline tonight will likely be whether or not the Leafs will attempt to extract their pound of flesh from Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas, who will suit up against the Leafs for the first time tonight since screaming in rookie netminder Joseph Woll's face after eliminating the Leafs in 5 games in last year's playoffs, so look for Reaves, Benoit and McCabe to try to get under his skin tonight.
| POLL | ||
17 FEVRIER | 547 ANSWERS Two key players out for the Leafs, Keefe forced to make significant tweaks to the lineup Which bottom six forward has been the least impressive this season? | ||
| Gregor | 138 | 25.2 % |
| Holmberg | 115 | 21 % |
| Kampf | 294 | 53.7 % |
| Reaves | 0 | 0 % |
| List of polls | ||
