The start to the Toronto Maple Leafs Season has been average.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a winning record, coming off of a 5-2 victory against the Red Wings on Saturday, but their overall play has been average.
Mike Babcock has made some questionable decisions, like leaving Kapanen on the Tavares line even though it’s clearly not working.
On top of this, Frederik Andersen has looked off to start the year. He has a record of 3-2, but along with that comes a 3.38 GAA and a save percentage of .886. He also let in seven goals against the Lightning on Thursday night.
But despite all of this, the Leafs have one of the most talented offensive teams in the league, and they’ve been to pull together wins because of it.
Toronto Maple Leafs 3rd Line Has Been Great
Auston Matthews and William Nylander are buzzing to start the year, with seven points for Matthews and five points for Nylander, and they’ve been getting offense from the back end as well with five points for Morgan Rielly, four points for Tyson Barrie, and three points from Cody Ceci.
With that being said, the guys who have impressed me the most have been the guys on the third line.
The third line this year consists of Alex Kerfoot centering Ilya Mikheyev and Trevor Moore. And this whole line has been incredible to start the year. Mikheyev is seeing an excellent start to the season, putting up five points through his first six games of NHL action.
Moore and Kerfoot have also had success to start the year with four points apiece. They’re the only line that’s been consistently good in every game.
What impresses me most about this line is that one of them is new to the team, one of them is new to the NHL, and one of them has less than 40 games under his belt. Yet they’ve thrived so well together.
Mikheyev had next to no expectations coming into this season, considering all of the Leafs’ European signings in recent memory have flopped (Zaitsev, Lindholm, Ozhiganov), but he’s looked right at home.
Kerfoot has been just as good if not better than Nazem Kadri was, making that trade hurt less. And Moore has looked like a full-time NHLer. After getting called up to the NHL near the end of last season, he impressed in his short stint and now it doesn’t look like he’ll be headed back to the AHL anytime soon.
In saying all of this, I still think that the Leafs should give Mikheyev a look on the Tavares line and let Kasperi Kapanen play on Kerfoot’s right wing.
The Tavares line has looked terrible to start the season, and Kapanen has been the worst of it with only two assists in six games.
Babcock has used Kapanen as a left winger and he’s looked really uncomfortable to start the year.
It would benefit everybody if Kapanen was on the third line, as he has the speed to keep the line moving quickly and would get to play in his most comfortable position.
It would also give the team a chance to see what Mikheyev could to playing alongside of Tavares and Marner, hopefully kickstarting their game as well.
It’s fun to dream, but we all know that Babcock is as stubborn as a mule and will likely keep Kapanen where he is until Zach Hyman comes back and assumes his spot on that line.
With this being the most likely event, at the very least we will have the joy of watching the Toronto Maple Leafs third line produce as it is. Mikheyev, Kerfoot, and Moore have all looked very good to start the season and hopefully we see it continue throughout the whole season.