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Line shuffling helps in win over Wild; Leafs vs. Caps

October 16, 2019, 6:54 PM ET [441 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs strayed from their usual set lines against the Minnesota Wild, scoring four times in the second period of a 4-2 win at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday, and are hoping that their new combos will lead to their third straight victory as they take on the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Wednesday.

John Tavares, Mitch Marner, Andreas Johnsson, and Auston Matthews scored, Morgan Rielly had four assists for Toronto, and Frederik Andersen made 27 saves for his fourth victory of the season.



Toronto continued their trend for slow starts, surrendering the opening goal to Minnesota’s Luke Kunin just over five minutes into the first period (the sixth time the Leafs have allowed the opening goal in seven games), but in the middle frame, Leafs head coach Mike Babcock moved Trevor Moore to left wing on the line with John Tavares and Mitch Marner and shifted Kasperi Kapanen back to his natural right side. That paid immediate dividends, as Tavares rocketed a shot past Devan Dubnyk to tie the game.

The power play gave the Leafs the lead, going two for three on the night with tallies from Marner and Johnsson, and Toronto padded the lead when the rare combo of Tavares, Marner and Matthews took a shift five-on-five, resulting in #34’s club leading seventh goal of the season.

“The first 15 minutes of that second period was real good.” Babcock said. “(The Wild) played last night. In saying all that, it was a good 15 minutes for us. We played right; it was good.”



Babcock is keeping his line combinations the same for the second of back-to-back games in Washington, and will play the fourth line unit of Dmytro Timashov-Nick Shore-Frederik Gauthier for the third straight game, and the same bottom defensive pairing of Martin Marincin and Justin Holl.

The Leafs head coach showed more confidence in his depth units on Tuesday, playing all of the fourth liners and bottom pairing (except Timashov) nearly 13 minutes. The only lineup change will be in goal, as backup Michael Hutchinson gets his second start of the season.

Hutchinson allowed five goals (and one in the shootout) in his first start against Montreal on October 5, and replaced Andersen after the Leafs starter surrendered seven goals to Tampa last Thursday.

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