Ryan O’Reilly, had a hattrick as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 6-3 on Tuesday night.
People were quick to pounce on Sheldon Keefe’s coaching decisions when the Toronto Maple Leafs lined up with John Tavares on the wing.
Based off of last night, hopefully people are now realizing they were wrong to doubt him; their first-period performance in the 6-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres is definitive proof, as if it were needed, that the Leafs captain can succeed as a winger.
Then again:
“I still feel at the end of the day we’re going to have John back at centre.” -Sheldon Keefe
— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) February 22, 2023
Either way, that line combining for 13 points, headlined by a O’Reilly hat-trick and 5 assists for Marner should certainly have silenced some critics.
Is This A Long-Term Answer for the Toronto Maple Leafs?
Now, with all this said, it’s not to say that it’s a long-term move to have John Tavares floating on the Toronto Maple Leafs second-line left wing.
After all, he is still a valuable center that was point-per-game in that position prior to O’Reilly’s arrival with the team.
As Sheldon Keefe has alluded; he’s testing the options he has and right now has landed upon an elite line combination that possesses off-the-charts hockey IQ.
In the immediate term, that can only serve to boost the Toronto Maple Leafs as they still have work to do in the Atlantic Division to secure home-ice for the first-round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Long-term, you’d have to imagine that the Toronto Maple Leafs will be creating match-up nightmares by rolling Auston Matthews, John Tavares and then Ryan O’Reilly as their top-three centers.
However, it seems a very smart move right now for Keefe to continue giving Tavares time to adapt to the specific positional requirements of playing on the wing for a few key reasons.
Namely, it gives O’Reilly a chance to adapt to playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs, how the team is put together tactically and generally gives him the best chance to find his feet with the group. Doing so with elite line mates will only serve to have him enter the playoffs in a confident mindset.
Likewise, it allows Keefe to build some line chemistry that doesn’t necessarily need to be rolled out every night.
It must also be noted that neither O’Reilly nor Tavares are anywhere near as fleet of foot as Mitch Marner; having Tavares on O’Reilly’s wing gives that line a chance to play a little slower game and focus on their intelligence as opposed to attempting to beat an opponent on pure pace.
There are going to certainly be times it makes much better sense to revert Tavares back to the middle and roll out a three-headed monster when it comes to centers, albeit there will be a drop-off in line mates for the third-line option.
John Tavares has rightly offered himself as the left-winger on that line and while there’s argument to be made that it downgrades the line-up as a whole; it certainly gives an immediate boost to the top-six.
It’s very hard to argue with any of the decisions made around John Tavares and his line mates right now. The Toronto Maple Leafs captain had his own 4-point night versus Buffalo and that’s argument enough!