What the Toronto Maple Leafs Playoff Lineup Should Look Like

Foligno- Tavares- Nylander

While I am a full fledged supporter of Alexander Galchenyuk and would completely support playing him here, I think the Toronto Maple Leafs should just copy the exact same format as line one, so that they can relentlessly skate and forcheck teams into the ground.

When Foligno was acquired, much was made about how he was one of the best puck retrievers in the game.  I saw a chart, which I can no longer find, that showed him to be just below Zach Hyman in a list of the games best forecheckers.   Just behind Foligno? William Nylander.

A Foligno-Nylander combo should be a forechecking puck-retrieval machine. With the top line taking all the hardest minutes already, the Leafs second line has been completely dominant no matter who they use, but Foligno gives them a chance to be even better.

With Nylander and Tavares both on the ice, the Leafs are outscoring opponents by a score of 18-10, which is 64% and nearly as good as Matthews/Hyman.  To have two first lines just dominating whoever the top six of their opponents is makes the Leafs nearly unbeatable.

Ironically, given Tavares and Nylander’s reputations as finesse players, but this line actually brings a ton of grit and checking ability.  Few players are better at finding room in the tough areas around the net as Tavares, while Foligno is the human embodiment of what people mean when they say “playoff hockey.”

As for Nylander, he is not only one of the NHL’s best forecheckers, he’s one of the NHL’s best players when it comes to carrying the puck through the neutral zone and getting a controlled entry. On top of this, he is an elite scorer who’s 35 points in 43 games is actually pretty incredible when you put them in context (Tavares slump, low on-ice shooting percentage, 2nd PP unit).

This is, in my opinion, a no-brainer top-six, but how should the bottom-six look?