For the latest Leafs updates or Follow @mikeinbuffalo on Twitter The Toronto Maple Leafs begin a stretch of three games in four nights with their second visit to the Motor City, taking on the Red Wings at Little Caesar’s Arena on Wednesday. The Leafs won their previous match 5-2 in Detroit on October 12 and hope to extend their winning streak to three games following the firing of former Wings and Leafs head coach Mike Babcock last week.
The Wings were expected to be at the bottom of the NHL standings after doing very little in the off-season under new GM Steve Yzerman, and thus far they have met those lowly expectations with a league-worst 7-16-3 record. Detroit received a bit of an offensive boost with the acquisition of Robby Fabbri from St. Louis, who has eight points (3 goals, 5 assists) in nine games, but will be without leading scorer Anthony Mantha and veteran defensemen Mike Green, Trevor Daley, and Danny DeKeyser.
Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe will make a couple lineup adjustments, subbing in Nic Petan for the suspended Alex Kerfoot on the line with Jason Spezza and Kasperi Kapanen and inserting Dmytro Timashov on the fourth line with Pierre Engvall and Frederik Gauthier.
The club also made some personnel and positional changes on special teams. The first power play unit remains the same, with Morgan Rielly, Tyson Barrie, William Nylander, Auston Matthews and John Tavares, while the second unit includes Jake Muzzin at the point, with Kapanen, Spezza, Petan and Andreas Johnsson.
Keefe also indicated on Wednesday that he intends to lean more heavily on Tavares and Matthews, giving them more ice time when the game requires it, which was something that Babcock stubbornly refused to do even during the playoffs.
Tavares played a season-low 15:49 and Matthews just under 18 minutes against the Coyotes, but both were over 20 minutes in Denver on Saturday, where the Leafs took an early 4-1 lead and held on through the last 40 minutes. With Kerfoot out the next two games and Spezza playing third line center, you could see Keefe continue to give his top two centers more responsibilities taking face-offs in both offensive and defensive zone situations.
Frederik Andersen and former Leaf Jonathan Bernier will get the start in goal, and the Leafs with a win could move back into third place in the Atlantic Division.
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— The Leafs Convo (@TheLeafsConvo) November 25, 2019