The Toronto Maple Leafs are hanging on by a thread. They own a five-game losing streak heading into Tuesday night’s game against the St. Louis Blues. To go along with that, they sit in the second-to-last position in the Eastern Conference. Unless things turn around quickly for the Maple Leafs, pundits will be speaking about Gavin McKenna rather than Lord Stanley.
Adding insult to literal injury, they are trying to turn things around with a less-than-healthy lineup. Before Tuesday night’s game against the Blues, the team announced that Matthew Knies would not play.
Toronto Maple Leafs Collecting Injuries Like Infinity Stones
Thanos (the main villain in the first dozen or so Marvel Cinematic Universe Films) had one mission: to collect the Infinity Stones so he could snap away half of the universe.
Right now, the injury bug has taken another huge bite out of the Maple Leafs. Before their November 18th game against the Blues, they announced the Knies’ injury.
They are labelling Knies as “day-to-day”. He joins Auston Matthews, Scott Laughton, Chris Tanev, Brandon Carlo, Nicolas Roy, and Anthony Stolarz on the injured list.
Game Day Lines Without Matthew Knies
The Maple Leafs are now left with an even bigger hole in their lineup. When they took warmups before Tuesday night’s game, here’s how the forward lines shaped up.
Maple Leafs Forward Line 1
John Tavares centered the top line with Nick Robertson and William Nylander as his wingers. Nylander and Tavares lead the team with 26 and 24 points, respectively.
The second line features Max Domi at center, followed by Bobby McMann and Easton Cowan as the left and right wingers.
Sammy Blais, Matias Maccelli, and Jacob Quillan comprise the third line. That leaves Dakota Joshua, Steven Lorentz, and Calle Jarnkrok to construct the fourth line.
Is a Trade on the Way to Help the Maple Leafs?
The Maple Leafs have been linked to Nick Schmaltz recently. Will those rumors begin to recirculate? That’s a bigger possibility now.
Schmaltz would add speed to the team, something they sorely lack. He would also add some offensive talent. Additionally, if the cost to acquire him is low, he will have a familiar face, considering he used to be teammates with both Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Maccelli.
On the backend, the Maple Leafs have been connected to a few big names. The Hockey News suggested the likes of Erik Karlsson or Dougie Hamilton as targets for Toronto to pursue.
“Friedman claimed the Leafs prefer a “roster for roster” trade, meaning they’re examining players on their roster who might interest other teams, excluding their core players,” Lyle Richardson reported on November 18 for The Hockey News. “Adam Proteau of The Hockey News can see the Leafs peddling defenseman Morgan Rielly. He wondered if they might offer him to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Erik Karlsson, or the New Jersey Devils for Dougie Hamilton.”
Maple Leafs’ Latest Bad News Will Prompt Big Change