The Toronto Maple Leafs are coming off a great weekend that saw them defeat the Carolina Hurricanes and the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Toronto Maple Leafs received great goaltending, got some goals from their blue-line, and even saw Nick Robertson and Pontus Holmberg find the back of the net multiple times.
It was a great weekend that ended with the Leafs in first place in the Atlantic.
Sunday also marked the beginning of a seven-game road-trip, and tonight the Leafs will play their third game in four nights, and tonight's opponent is the Boston Bruins.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Coach Makes a Truly Insane Lineup Decision (Again)
The Leafs lost to Boston at the end of October, 4-3 in OT. In November, they beat them 4-0. The two teams did not meet in December, but in January the Leafs won 6-4.
The Bruins have lost three in a row and find themselves closer to Montreal, Long Island and Philly than the seventh-place Red Wings. They are just one point out of a Wild Card spot, but the teams ahead of them have games in hand. The Bruins are 11 points behind the Leafs and the Leafs have played less games.
The Bruins have several quality options for the Leafs if they sell at the deadline, but the main target the Leafs should be interested in is Trent Frederic. He's having a down year, but he's a huge guy with offensive and defensive skills, he's cheap, and he's only 27. If the Leafs could land an elite defenseman in a differen trade, Frederic would be the ideal secondary pick-up.
Tonight the Leafs will go with Anthony Stolarz in net, but will otherwise go with the same lineup that played against Chicago on Sunday.
Tavares in a defensive role, Holmberg on the second line, wasting Nylander is insanity......unless the goal is to juice Domi and Robertson and dump them on some unsuspecting dummie.
— Editor in Leaf (@EditorinLeaf) February 25, 2025
This is somewhat crazy, because Pontus Holmberg (who scored three times on the weekend but one was a fluke and two were empty-netters) is incapble of offense and the Nylander/Tavares/Homberg line was extremely bad on Sunday.
Clearly Tavares and Nylander just don't work together (especially when having Domi at centre means that the Tavares line is a defensive line for all intents and purposes) but I suspect (hope) that Craig Berube isn't blind to this fact and that this is a plan to help showcase Domi and Robertson for trades.
But, whatever they have in mind, it's absolutely BONKERS to have Alex Steeves on the fourth line when he's scored 29 times in 40 games this year, and scored on Saturday. Steeves instead of Holmberg on the second line would make sense, and it would also make the fourth line better and make far better use out of Pontus Holmberg.