Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube has wasted little time putting together line combinations and defensive pairings that appear to be what will be the units who will be together on October 8th for the season opener against the Montreal Canadiens.
The club went through workouts at Ford Performance Centre on Friday with two practice groups, seemingly equally balanced between AHLers and NHLers, but the groupings appear to be Leaf lines and pairings and Marlie lines and pairings.
The factor that has created a domino effect is the injury to Max Domi, who Berube indicated was his first choice to play on the right side with Matthew Knies and Auston Matthews. Newcomer Matias Maccelli was slotted in with the Leafs top liners on both Thursday and Friday, but this is likely a placeholder situation until Domi is back at 100%. The injured forward worked out with the club’s development staff for the second straight day, prior to practice.
In a separate group, the left winger who will get the first crack at playing with John Tavares and William Nylander is Bobby McMann. The 29-year-old scored a career-high 20 goals last season, but went goalless in his last 24 regular season and playoff games. The big winger will undoubtedly be motivated in the final year of a two-year, $2.7 million deal to repeat his goal-scoring prowess in order to get a significant bump as an unrestricted free agent next summer. Berube indicated that he wants a bigger forward to play with Tavares and Nylander, likely to retrieve the puck along the boards for the two scorers.
The third line with a pair of newcomers in Dakota Joshua and Nicolas Roy playing left wing and center has rookie Easton Cowan playing the right side, perhaps an indicator that Berube will give the talented youngster a chance to show if he can play in a checking, two-way role. Fourth-liners Steven Lorentz and Scott Laughton have Nick Robertson playing the right side, which is indicative of the continuing lack of trust to play Robertson higher in the lineup, while a unit of Michael Pezzetta, David Kampf, and Calle Jarnkrok could aptly be labeled the “spare parts” line.
On defense, the pairings that played throughout the postseason were in place, with Morgan Rielly playing alongside Brandon Carlo, the shutdown unit of Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev, and the bottom pairing of Simon Benoit and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Newcomer Henry Thrun skated with righty Philippe Myers.
To no surprise, Berube said after practice that Rielly will return to his role of quarterbacking the Leafs first power play.
Home › Forums › Leafs Camp Day 2 – Regular Season Combos