Projected Toronto Maple Leafs lines for playoff Game 1 vs. Ottawa Senators
The Toronto Maple Leafs are raring to go for the playoffs.
Sure, the Leafs have one more regular-season game to close out the year when they take on the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night, but it’s merely a tune-up match at this point.
With a first-round series against the Ottawa Senators locked up and an expected start date of Sunday, Toronto’s coaching staff and front office are no doubt making the final tweaks to their Game 1 roster.
Assuming the health of the following players, here’s how Toronto could line up when they get things going against Ottawa this weekend, given that it’s how they’ve set up the past two games:
- Matthew Knies-Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner
- Max Domi-John Tavares-William Nylander
- Bobby McMann-Pontus Holmberg-Nick Robertson
- Steven Lorentz-Scott Laughton-Calle Jarnkrok
Max Pacioretty hasn’t played since February 8, so it might make sense to ice a lineup that’s been a bit more active over the past few months, even if he is declared healthy for the playoffs. While Scott Laughton was assumed to fill the third-line centre role when the Leafs acquired him from the Philadelphia Flyers, he’s mostly been in the fourth-line centre role over the last few weeks.
While the top line is set, there’s still a bit of uncertainty in Toronto’s middle six, with John Tavares and William Nylander sticking together about the only safe bets at this point.
- Jake McCabe-Chris Tanev
- Morgan Rielly-Brandon Carlo
- Simon Benoit-Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Both McCabe and Ekman-Larsson are out for tonight’s finale, but head coach Craig Berube stated this week that he expects both players to play.
In net, it appears that Anthony Stolarz will get his first-ever playoff start. Stolarz has just 35 minutes of playoff action, coming in relief last year in an 8-1 loss in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals last year against the Edmonton Oilers while he was with the Florida Panthers.
In any case, we should get a pretty good idea in the coming days about how Toronto plans to attack their first Battle of Ontario since 2004.