9 Keys to a Winning Toronto Maple Leafs Playoff Lineup
The Toronto Maple Leafs will once again be screwed over by the NHL's extremely dumb playoff seeding format.
In the past, the Toronto Maple Leafs have not been rewarded for being one of the NHL's top teams, and instead have been forced to play Tampa Bay twice in the opening round because three of the NHL's best teams just happened to be in the same division.
That might sound like an excuse for failure, but it's been a major factor. The most ridiculous version of this was the years the Leafs lost to Tampa in the first round, but other than the year they lost the Canadiens in the first round, this has been a pretty big factor every year.
That hasn't changed this year, and so whoever doesn't win the Atlantic Division title gets a bizarrely hard first round matchup for a top team.
This means that despite one of the NHL's best records, the Leafs will be rewarded with a first round series against one of the only teams in the league with a better roster than they have - Boston or Florida.
Since that's the case, they are going to have to dress the best possible playoff lineup.
Here's how.
Keys to a Winning Toronto Maple Leafs Playoff Lineup
1. Split Up Matthews and Marner and Nylander
The Toronto Maple Leafs need to understand the most important rule of the NHL = stars make everyone else better, but when you combine them you are subject to the law of diminishing returns.
An elite player on every line is how you take advantage of having so many one-dimensional players in the lineup. (Domi, Nylander, Kampf, Dewar).
2. Keep the Duds on the Bench
Ryan Reaves, Noah Gregor and Ilya Samsonov should not see the ice in the playoffs if at all possible. You can't trust them so you can't play them.
3. Start Joseph Woll
This shouldn't even be a conversation.
Woll is more talented, but more importantly, he's more poised and less prone to a meltdown.
Sammy's redemption is a nice story, but it's a story, so who cares? You can't get sentimental at a time like this!
Doesn't matter how good he plays between returning to the lineup and the end of the season, his trustability is near zero.
4. Dewar-Kampf-Jarnkrok
You can't have a "shut down" 3rd line because scoring is too imporant. But this is a fantastic fourth line that you can actually trust in a tight situation.
5. Robertson, Domi and McMann
Yeah they are bad at defense.
No you should not combine them into one line. But their scoring abilities are invaluable to this team, especially with a blue-line that is really bad at passing and puck-moving.
All three need to be in the lineup at the same time.
6. Jake McCabe - Timothy Liljegren
This is the top pairing. Keefe needs to get Liljegren away from Edmundson. This is the Leafs best possible top pairing that doesn't need to be sheltered.
7. Never Play Benoit-Lyubushkin-Edmundson in the same game.
The Leafs can barely move the puck as it is with two of these guys + TJ Brodie.
Having all four of them in the same game will make it impossible to get the most out of their high-end forwards.
8. Play Nick Robertson on the Power-Play
The Leafs need to stop loading up one unit. That's dumb when you consider that on the power-play, Domi isn't much worse of a player than Marner. Keefe needs to take better advantage of what he has.
He has two great net-front guys in Bertuzzi and Knies they should each be on their own unit.
Then, unit one should alternate between Matthews and Robertson blasting pucks at the net, while unit two should employ the same strategy with Nylander and McMann. One unit gets Domi, the other gets Marner. One unit gets Rielly, the other gets Liljegren. It's really that simple.
9. Play Conor Timmins
Timmins is a great puck-mover and the Leafs need that. He also consistently puts up the best numbers on the team. I'd like to see him and Rielly paired together whenever possible.
First paring should be McCabe/Liljegren then follow that Rielly with Timmins and make some kind of third pairing out of Lyubushkin, Edmundson, Brodie, Giordano (if he comes back) and Benoit.
Here are the Lines I think the Leafs should try:
Bertuzzi – Matthews –Robertson
Knies - Tavares - Marner
McMann – Domi – Nylander
Dewar/Holmberg – Kampf - Jarnkrok
To my eye, this lineup does the best job of using everyone in their best role, while maintaining a strong balance . This is probably the best fourth line in hockey, and if you pick your spots with that third line they will score a ton. The most important aspect is having a superstar on every line so that team's have trouble defending against you.
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All together, I believe this gives the Leafs the best chance of winning the Stanley Cup.