No Playoff Line-Up For Possible Toronto Maple Leafs First Round Matchup
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs will be playing a potential first-round opponent tonight when they take on the Florida Panthers.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, however, won't be doing it with their playoff lineup as injuries continue to take their toll.
The Leafs will once again be without Calle Jarnkrok, Morgan Rielly and Mitch Marner from their lineup as the regular season winds down.
All three players are due back soon, however. According to Mark Masters, the Leafs will use the same lineup, including Samsonov who is coming off a shut-out, they used Saturday against Buffalo.
No Playoff Line-Up For Possible Toronto Maple Leafs First Round Matchup
That means that not only will the Leafs be without Rielly, Marner and Jarmkrok, but they will also without Timothy Liljegren and Joel Edmundson (thought that might not matter too much).
The Leafs were able to get a shut-out against the Sabres by dressing a blue-line that featured Jake McCabe, Ilya Lyubushkin, Mark Giordano, T.J Brodie, Conor Timmins and Simon Benoit.
I'm sure that at some point, another team has dressed a blue-line this bad, but I am not aware of it. This group is way below average when it comes to puck moving as Timmins practically looks like Bobby Orr compared to the rest of them.
As someone with Sam Reinhart in his hockey pool playoffs, I can't really complain. The Leafs are probably going to get demolished, but you never know. The "top four" of McCabe, Lyubushkin, Brodie and Benoit is so bad that words fail to describe it properly.
But that's why they play the games!
Personally, I'll be tuning in for two reasons. One, Auston Matthews is on a quest for 70 and has nine games to do it. He's always worth the price of admition.
The second is the line of Nick Robertson, Pontus Holmberg and Matthew Knies. How can you not be excited about such a cool line?
As for this being a playoff preview, I just don't buy it. The Leafs are dressing a very lite version of their team tonight and are likely to be smashed. The Panthers will also have motivation to play hard, as they would still like to win the division or at least secure home-ice for their series against the Leafs.
The Leafs, should they win tonight, would only be four points back of Florida with a game in hand. For a team that has allowed almost 50 more goals than Florida has, that ain't bad.
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The weak Leafs lineup couldn't come at a worse time, but then again, this is when you sometimes find out something about a player you didn't know know. Maybe this is when Robertson, Holmberg or Timmins steps up and earns a permanent job. Who knows?