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The Toronto Maple Leafs hope to exact a little bit of revenge against the Florida Panthers, the club that they were eliminated by in the playoffs last season, in the first game of a five-game road trip in Sunrise, FL on Thursday.
The Leafs went 2-1-0 in their season-opening three-game homestand with wins over Montreal and Minnesota, and a 3-1 loss to Chicago on Monday. Due to some defensive struggles and not having the benefit of the last change, head coach Sheldon Keefe is expected to maintain the line changes he implemented at practice on Wednesday.
It is expected that Tyler Bertuzzi will slot in on the left side with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner after Keefe said he wasc absent from Wednesday’s practice due to a maintenance day. John Tavares and William Nylander will be joined by rookie Matthew Knies on the second line, while Calle Jarnkrok has shifted back to the third line with rookie Fraser Minten and Max Domi, and Noah Gregor skates with David Kampf and Ryan Reaves.
Ilya Samsonov (2-0-0, 4.42 GAA, 839 save %) will start in goal and will be faced by countryman Sergei Bobrovsky (1-2-0, 3.42 GAA, .888 save %). The Panthers lost their first two games to Minnesota and Winnipeg before getting their first victory over New Jersey on Monday.
Sam Bennett, Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad will all be out of the lineup for Florida.
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If you were looking for a reason why Auston Matthews goal production declined last season, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in his 32 Thoughts column may have the answer.
Friedman indicated that the Calder and Hart Trophy winner may have had another, minor procedure on his wrist in the summer of 2022 that robbed him of being fully able to train that off-season. Matthews had no such issues this offseason and was fully able to train over the summer, which might be the reason he has bolted out with consecutive hat tricks in the first two games.
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