Leafs shuffle lines with Tavares sick and O'Reilly injured
The Toronto Maple Leafs might not be totally in bizzaro world, but they sure are operating some strange lines these days.
Due to two of their top six forwards Ryan O’Reilly and John Tavares both being out, Toronto is running a bit of a makeshift forward group right now.
O’Reilly has a broken finger and will be going on long-term injured reserve, Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe told the media today.
Meanwhile, Tavares is “under the weather,” per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
At his media availability, TOR head coach Sheldon Keefe says Ryan O’Reilly has a broken finger and will be going on LTIR. (Timeline uncertain as of now.) John Tavares won’t play tomorrow vs NJ as he is a little under the weather.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 6, 2023
Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews still anchor the Leafs’ top line, but it’s a bit of a wildcard roster from there on out.
Alex Kerfoot joins Marner and Matthews on the left wing, while Sam Lafferty skates in between Calle Jarnkrok and William Nylander to round out Toronto’s top six.
Here’s the full forward contingent at today’s practice, as per The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke:
- Alex Kerfoot – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
- Calle Jarnkrok – Sam Lafferty – William Nylander
- Michael Bunting – Holmberg – Alex Steeves
- Zach Aston-Reese – Kampf – Noel Acciari
- Extra: John Tavares
Leafs forward lines at practice in New Jersey:
Kerfoot – Matthews – Marner
Jarnkrok – Lafferty – Nylander
Bunting – Holmberg – Steeves
Aston-Reese – Kampf – Acciari
Extra: Tavares— Joshua Kloke (@joshuakloke) March 6, 2023
Keefe explained after Toronto’s 4-1 loss on Saturday to the Vancouver Canucks why he’d decided on giving Kerfoot a shot on the top line and swapped Bunting into the team’s bottom two lines.
“I just think [Kerfoot] has been playing better than [Bunting]. That is really it,” Keefe told reporters on Saturday night about why he’d opted for the change. [Kerfoot] was outstanding. It was maybe his best game of the season the other night. We were trying to change that up a little bit, change that group a little bit there, and get a little bit more from them.”
However, it seems that the decision isn’t solely dictated by the players’ offensive performances, as Kerfoot has three assists in his last 10 games, while Bunting has four goals and two assists in the same stretch.
But while the Leafs’ forward groups are looking to make things work while missing a pair of big pieces, Toronto actually has a surplus of usable defencemen right now after an active week of trades for general manager Kyle Dubas.
Here’s how the Leafs’ defensive pairs match up, per Kloke:
Leafs defence pairs at practice:
Rielly-Liljegren
McCabe-Brodie
Giordano-Holl
Gustafsson-Timmins https://t.co/2DfEIFRscU— Joshua Kloke (@joshuakloke) March 6, 2023
- Morgan Rielly – Timothy Liljegren
- Jake McCabe – TJ Brodie
- Mark Giordano – Justin Holl
- Extras: Erik Gustafsson – Connor Timmins
The Leafs take on the Devils Tuesday night in New Jersey, with puck drop set for 7 pm ET.
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