When the Toronto Maple Leafs take to the ice on Thursday night, they’ll have a chance to clinch their first postseason series win since all the way back in 2004.

But if the series against the Tampa Bay Lightning ends in five games, there will be at least one typical Leafs forward not present in the post-series handshake line.

Based on the Leafs’ lineup at today’s practice, it looks like forward Michael Bunting will be absent from Toronto’s group come tomorrow night’s Game 5.

With the Leafs up 3-1 in the series, they’ve had all three of their wins come without Bunting, who was ejected from Game 1 and later suspended three games for a hit on Tampa defenceman Erik Cernak. Rookie forward Matthew Knies was inserted into the lineup in Bunting’s place, while Calle Jarnkrok slotted in alongside Bunting’s usual linemates in Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews.

The Lightning is sitting at 11.25 for the improbable series comeback, while the Leafs sit at 1.06 to close out the series, as per Sports Interaction.

Forward lines

• Calle Jarnkrok – Auston Matthews – William Nylander
• Matthew Knies –  John Tavares – Mitch Marner
• Kerfoot – Ryan O’Reilly – Noel Acciari
• Zach Aston-Reese – David Kampf – Sam Lafferty
• Wayne Simmonds,  Michael Bunting

Defensive pairings

• Morgan Rielly – Luke Schenn
• Jake McCabe – TJ Brodie
• Mark Giordano – Justin Holl
• Erik Gustafsson – Timothy Liljegren
• Victor Mete – Conor Timmins

The Leafs, at 6.24, trail just the Boston Bruins at 3.44 as the league’s second-best odds right now to win the Stanley Cup this season, as per Sports Interaction. 

Puck drop for Game 5 is set for 7 pm ET on Thursday night at Scotiabank Arena.

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