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Toronto Maple Leafs Practice Lines Leave a Lot to Be Desired

By James Tanner

OTTAWA, ON - SEPTEMBER 19: Toronto Maple Leafs center Tyler Ennis (63) applies pressure on the forecheck during first period National Hockey League preseason action between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators on September 19, 2018, at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, ON, Canada. (Photo by Richard A. Whittaker/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
OTTAWA, ON - SEPTEMBER 19: Toronto Maple Leafs center Tyler Ennis (63) applies pressure on the forecheck during first period National Hockey League preseason action between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators on September 19, 2018, at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, ON, Canada. (Photo by Richard A. Whittaker/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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The Toronto Maple Leafs are gearing up for their rematch against the Boston Bruins.

With the regular season finished, the Toronto Maple Leafs will play the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs beginning this Thursday.

The Leafs ended their season with four loses in five games.

Not exactly the ideal way to enter the playoffs.

Toronto Maple Leafs Lines

If we are to read anything into today’s lines at practice, the Leafs might be in for a bit of trouble due to some weird decisions by their coach.

The first thing you notice here is that William Nylander has been replaced by Kasperi Kapanen.  This is probably more about getting Kapanen going than anything to do with Nylander who has been extremely strong since February. (Nylander’s 5v5 P/60 since March first is a very strong 2.12 while Kapanen’s is just 0.6). (All stats from naturalstattrick.com).

The problem with doing this is that Nylander and Matthews, going back to Matthew’s rookie year, are among the top scoring lines in hockey.  I don’t like breaking this up at all.

The second thing I don’t like about these lines is that Tyler Ennis appears set to be a healthy scratch. Ennis posted a very good 1.85 p/60 for the entire season, and he is a 60% possession player when he gets on the ice with anyone besides Frederick Gauthier.  Ennis taking Marleau’s spot next to Kadri is what I’d like to see.

As for the defense, there is no reason to have Jake Gardiner on the third pairing, since Travis Dermott paired with anyone tends to dominate third-pairing minutes.  Since Dermott and anyone can put up good minutes on the third pairing, it seems wasteful to have Gardiner here.

That said, when he’s healthy, Jake Gardiner tends to be the Leafs most used 5v5 defenseman, so I don’t really see this lasting.  What I am concerned about is having a top-four that includes both Hainsey and Zaitsev.  This is so clearly the Toronto Maple Leafs biggest problem that it’s frankly crazy they haven’t addressed it.

It’s been clear for a while now that the Toronto Maple Leafs view Nikita Zaitsev better than the pretty much the entire rest of the world, and to some extent that view has been justified by the excellent play of a Zaitsev/Muzzin combo.

Next. Toronto Maple Leafs Top Ten Prospects. dark

Really, all the Leafs need to do here, in my opinion, is swap Gardiner for Hainsey and they’re set.

Breaking up the Nylander / Matthews combo is inane though.  That is objectively a bad decision and I hope it doesn’t cost them.

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