Toronto Maple Leafs: The (Likely) Return of Jake Gardiner

The Toronto Maple Leafs will most likely make a welcome addition to the lineup tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Jake Gardiner, the second or third best defensemen on the Toronto Maple Leafs (depending on your views of Jake Muzzin) will be in the lineup tonight, pending a game-time decision.

Gardiner has not played since February 25th, and has missed more than a month of action, 18 games in total.

The Leafs have struggled without him, as any team will struggle without one of their best players.

Jake Gadiner’s Return

According to Kristen Schilton, Gardiner was back in his customary role of trying to make Nikita Zaitsev look like an NHL player in practice this morning.

Hopefully this is just because Jake Muzzin is out of the lineup (Babcock told reporters this morning that Kadri and Muzzin will miss the game).

Muzzin and Zaitsev are a 51% pairing, and Gardiner and Zaitsev are a 49% pairing, so Muzzin should really stick with Zaitsev.  Though the two got off to a rough start, they’ve lately been much better and Zaitsev looks his best when paired with Muzzin.  The Toronto Maple Leafs shouldn’t mess with this unless it’s to just move Zaitsev out of the lineup completely. (Stats from naturalstattrick.com).

The pairing of Dermott and Rosen/Holl/Ozhiganov/Marincin is always near the top of the league for 3rd pairings because Dermott dominates that competition.  No need to waste either Gardiner or Muzzin down hear.

That means that once the lineup is fully healthy, which it’s barely been all year, the best move is either to pair Rielly and Gadiner on the top pairing, or Muzzin and Gardiner on the second pairing.  Whichever of Zaitsev/Hainsey loses their spot under that change could then go to the third pairing.

This is, of course, assuming that Mike Babcock makes the best decision, although that is not necessarily a guarantee. 

But the Toronto Maple Leafs, with all their money put into anayltics, must know that they can’t possibly enter the playoffs with Ron Hainsey and Nikita Zaitsev both playing top four minutes.

My ideal line would be a totally left handed top four of Rielly, Dermott, Gardiner and Muzzin, but there seem to be no chance of that actually happening.

I think the best we can hope for  is that Muzzin, Rielly and Gardiner all get onto the top two pairings.  Given that Dermott just levels the third pairing competition regardless of who he plays with, it seems idiotic to waste one of Muzzin or Gardiner on that pairing.

It will be interesting to see what happens.