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The Toronto Maple Leafs loss to Tampa Bay on Wednesday coupled with the Lightning’s victory in Montreal in the second of back-to-back games on Thursday has the Blue and White just two points ahead of their Floridian playoff rivals in the race for third place in the Atlantic Division.
The Leafs have a game in hand on Tampa, and both have remaining schedules strewn with non-playoff teams. The Lightning play in Pittsburgh on Saturday and in Washington next Wednesday, but play four games at Amalie Arena against Columbus, Ottawa, Buffalo, and the Leafs in the season finale on April 17.
Toronto plays in Montreal on Saturday, at home against the Penguins on Monday, a home-and-home against New Jersey next week, their home finale against Detroit the following Saturday, before finishing out their schedule with a Sunshine State back-to-back against the Panthers and Lightning.
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In looking at all three aspects of the Leafs roster going into the playoffs, the area where head coach Sheldon Keefe has the most options and opens himself up to the most potential criticism if he makes the wrong choices is on the blueline. GM Brad Treliving went out at the deadline and added veterans Ilya Lyubushkin and Joel Edmundson to a group that has shown flaws for most of the season.
The Leafs defensive corps is short of quality options to play in their top four, but in Lyubushkin and Edmundson added experienced depth options that can be plugged into roles in the short term. The absence of Edmundson, Rielly, and Timothy Liljegren after the deadline smells like a bit of load management, taking advantage of the Leafs certain playoff status and giving players the chance to heal up before what they hope will be a long postseason run.
Of the nine blueliners, the almost certain extra pieces are Conor Timmins and Mark Giordano. Both had long stretches on injured reserve and have played the last couple of weeks to get some playing time to potentially be ready if needed.
Rielly, Jake McCabe, Liljegren, Edmundson, and TJ Brodie are near-locks to be in the lineup for Game 1, assuming that injury does not become a factor between now and the start of the playoffs. The decision is likely going to come down to Lyubushkin vs. Simon Benoit. Lyubushkin has played mostly the right side with Rielly and gives the Leafs two righty shots with Liljegren. If Benoit plays, it likely means that McCabe, Edmundson, or Brodie will have to play the off side and we have seen especially with Brodie that being problematic.
Taking an educated guess, my prediction would be pairings of Rielly - Lyubushkin, Brodie - McCabe, and Edmundson - Liljegren to start the playoffs, but there could be a lot of changes in and out of the lineup throughout the first round.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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