The Toronto Maple Leafs will take on an injury ravaged Ducks team tonight in Anaheim.
Not only will the Maple Leafs be taking on the Ducks, they’ll be doing so with a revamped set of lines. They will be looking to end their recent three game losing streak, which saw recent losses to the Hurricanes, Flyers and Sharks.
The Ducks, despite their thin lineup, will be looking for their third win in a row.
Getzlaf, Kesler, Fowler, Bieksa and Eaves are Duck noticables who will not be in the lineup tonight. #tmltalk
— Paul Hendrick (@HennyTweets) November 1, 2017
The Ducks only recently got Sami Vatanen back in the lineup, and they’ll be without Getzlaf, Kesler, Fowler, Bieksa and Eaves. They still have a decent lineup and won’t be an easy win, but clearly it’s better to face a team that is missing some of their best players than to not.
The Leafs will have a new look lineup with some good and some bad.
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The Good is that Polak comes out for Connor Carrick. This is a no-brainer, and Carrick never deserved to sit. Babcock has also said that he’s reuniting Carrick with Gardiner, which was the Leafs best pairing last season.
The fallout of that is that Rielly will stick with Hainsey and Zaitsev will play on a pairing with Borgman. This is actually a really smart move by Babcock I think, and one I suggested during the summer – which is to play Zaitsev, Rielly and Gardiner all on different lines so that the Leafs basically always have a top-pairing puck mover on the ice at all times.
Forward Changes
On forward, the Leafs will drop Tyler Bozak to the fourth line (about time) and sit Dominic Moore. Marner, unfortunately, will skate with Bozak on the fourth line – thus making it, probably, one of the best fourth lines the NHL has ever seen.
If you switch Martin for Kapanen, Leafs would have a 1st line and three 2nd lines.
— Platinum Seat Ghosts (@3rdPeriodSuits) October 31, 2017
Unfortunately, Martin will dress and Kapanen won’t. Too bad. Josh Leivo is in though, and that’s great news. His being scratched on Monday was ridiculous after how he played against the Flyers last Saturday. Not as ridiculous as scratching Carrick, but still pretty damn ridiculous.
The Matthews line remains the same and the other line now features Marleau centering Brown and van Riemsdyk. I don’t really know why the Leafs would dress Marleau as a centre, but that’s what they’re going to do. Personally, I think they should have put Marleau or Matthews there, but baby steps, right?
Next: Time to Try Marner on the Top Line!
Overall, I think the new look lineup is pretty cool and it has me looking forward to this game more than any other one so far this season.