The Toronto Maple Leafs had a day away from the rink after spending Sunday and Monday practicing at the Ford Performance Centre in Etobicoke, ON in preparation for Game 1 of their first round meeting with the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
While their forward lines and defense pairings were quite familiar with the exception of the insertion of Riley Nash into the lineup, Toronto shook things up on special teams, splitting up the top heavy first power play unit of John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly in favor of two more balanced units.
One unit featured Matthews, Marner and Joe Thornton, with Zach Hyman as the net front presence and Rasmus Sandin on the point, the other featured Nylander and Tavares, with Jason Spezza, Wayne Simmonds in front of the net and Rielly on the point.
Toronto had remarkable success early in the season with two balanced squads competing with each other on the man advantage, while later in the season the Leafs struggled with an all-the-eggs-in-one-basket approach. Head coach Sheldon Keefe indicated on Tuesday that the more balanced units could be used against the Habs, but did not rule out going back to a loaded top unit in certain situations.
"We're less concerned about the ice time. Our best players are going to play and play a lot. In terms of the powerplay, we've been using primarily one loaded unit - if you want to call it that - for quite a while, even going back to last season." Keefe said. "You're still gonna see that group play together. We haven't made any final decisions in terms of how we'll start. And like I said, we expect to use that unit as well as the balanced groups. We like some of the elements of the balance in terms of having multiple threats on different units and spreading the puck around a little bit differently that way."
On the Montreal side, lineup changes in favor of more experience seem to be in order for the start of the series. Habs head coach Dominique Ducharme revealed on Tuesday that youngster Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and rookies Cole Caufield and Alexander Romanov will sit Game 1. The Canadiens could opt for more experienced forwards like Eric Staal, Corey Perry, Michael Frolik or Paul Byron, while on defense deadline acquisition Jon Merrill, Brett Kulak or Erik Gustafsson may be in over Romanov.
Brendan Gallagher and Carey Price both played for Laval against the Toronto Marlies on Monday and appear to be ready for Thursday, while defenseman Shea Weber returned to practice on Tuesday. Weber has not played since late April due to a hand injury and according to TSN’s John Lu did not take part in any one-on-one drills or heavy contact, which is indicative of the Montreal captain being less than 100%.
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