The Toronto Maple Leafs have juggled their lines ahead of their matchup against the New York Islanders on Saturday night.
With veteran center John Tavares out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller was forced to juggle the team’s lines ahead of the game against the Islanders.
Maple Leafs Lines for Islanders Game
Here is what the Maple Leafs’ lines look like for tonight’s game against the Islanders without Tavares, per TSN’s Mark Masters.
Lines at Leafs skate
Roslovic – Matthews – Nylander
Cowan – Paul – Marchenko
McKenna – Sissons – Groulx
Duhaime – Blueger – MacEwen
McCabe – Raddysh
Rielly – Stecher
Ekman-Larsson – Blankenburg
Rifai
Bobrovsky starts
Stolarz
Roslovic – Matthews – Nylander Cowan – Paul – Marchenko McKenna – Sissons – Groulx Duhaime – Blueger – MacEwen
McCabe – Raddysh Rielly – Stecher Ekman-Larsson – Blankenburg Rifai
Bobrovsky starts Stolarz
@TSN_SportsAs you can see from these newly-formed lines, the Maple Leafs moved winger Kirill Marchenko down to the second line to play with Nick Paul and Easton Cowan, who were bumped up from the team’s second line.
The team also has depth forwards Bo Groulx and Zack MacEwen in the lineup for tonight’s game.
On the defensive front, the team has paired up Morgan Rielly with Troy Stetcher, which is interesting, as the coaching staff has opted to pair up Darren Raddysh with Jake McCabe on the top defensive pair.
Will this new lineup help lead the Maple Leafs to a big win tonight against New York? We’ll see, but with the team a mediocre 3-3-2 through the first eight games of the year, they could surely use a big win tonight to earn two points in the standings and keep pace in the stacked Atlantic Division.
Power-Play Lines Get Switcheroo
In addition to the team’s standard lines, the power-play lines also got a switcheroo for tonight’s game against New York as well.
Power play units at Leafs skate
Raddysh, Matthews, Marchenko, Nylander, McKenna
Rielly, Blankenburg, Cowan, Roslovic, Groulx
Raddysh, Matthews, Marchenko, Nylander, McKenna
Rielly, Blankenburg, Cowan, Roslovic, Groulx
@TSN_SportsThe Maple Leafs will put McKenna on the first PP unit, which shows that coach Hiller still has confidence in the youngster despite benching him in the team’s last game against the Buffalo Sabres.
On the second pair, Groulx and Nick Blankenburg are getting a chance to get some PP ice time and show they are worthy of it.
Maple Leafs Juggle Lines Ahead of Islanders Matchup on Saturday