The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without several of their best players tonight when they take on the New Jersey Devils.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without John Tavares and Ryan O’Reilly tonight in New Jersey.
They will actually be dressing what appears to be their worst lineup since the Auston Matthews Era began, partly due to injury and partly do the fact that Sheldon Keefe seems to have come down with something that makes him horrible at lineups.
Hopefully he gets his stuff together before the playoffs, because what the Leafs are dressing tonight is not pretty. In fact, it’s insane mixture of surrealism with everyday Americana can only be described as down right Lynchian!
Toronto Maple Leafs vs New Jersey Devils
The Leafs will taking on the Devils for the third time this year, each team having split a game earlier.
The Devils are one of just three teams ahead of the Leafs, and they are a dangerous and fun team to watch. It is too bad the Leafs didn’t sign Dougie Hamilton when he was a free-agent, but what can you do? This is a player who continues to haunt them.
Keefe is going with Kerfoot on the top line, which is something that would get me chased out of town with a pitchfork, should I have written it out as a blog idea.
He will also have Sam Lafferty, a player with pretty much no offensive skills, centering the second line. It’s not like Mitch Marner or William Nylander couldn’t handle centre for a game or two, but whatever.
David Kampf is still on the 3rd, not fourth line. Zach Aston-Reese and Noel Acciari are now apparently third liners, while the only good line he put together is the fourth line.
That would be Steeves with Holberg and Bunting, inexplicably blamed for Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner craptastic recent play.
At last the Defence looks OK with a top pairing of Morgan Rielly and Timothy Liljegren, something you’d like to see going forward.
McCabe and Brodie is fine, and Gio/Holl is OK although I can’t believe Holl is still here and getting regular minutes.
To be honest, I don’t know if I love or hate this lineup – I do appreciate that it’s totally bonkers, but as a hockey analyst, I’m not sure it’s sensible.
What do I like? Nick Cage, Pez Dispensers, learning John Prine songs on guitar, The Tragically Hip, Batman comics and (of course) David Lynch movies. What I don’t like is feeling like I could make a better lineup than the Coach by selecting players randomly from a hat.
Then again, it’s not like this is a meaningful game, and the info the coach gets from the players tonight could be very valuable.