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The Toronto Maple Leafs went through line rushes and shook off the cobwebs in their opening practice on Monday, but worked more on their special teams in Day 2 of Phase 3 at the Ford Performance Centre in Etobicoke, ON on Tuesday.
The lines, defensive pairings and special team units were quite familiar combinations, as Auston Matthews skated between William Nylander and Zach Hyman and John Tavares and longtime linemate Mitch Marner lined up with Ilya Mikheyev.
"I didn't spend a lot of time on (determining line combos) frankly, that's how we finished just before the pause, we had made that switch. I felt strongly enough about it at the time. The main goal of having Mitch play with Auston when he did was just to see what that chemistry would be like with a bigger sample. (I) really liked what we saw from it, we saw great success with it." Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after practice on Tuesday.
Now we have confidence that if we decide to switch back at any time, which I think if I've shown anything, it's that I wouldn't stick with anything for too long that isn't working. But I also believe that Mitch is a great player that's good no matter where we put him and he certainly had great chemistry with John at the same time. We need to have two very good lines and we think that Mikheyev will bring a lot to that. That said, we've got two weeks here. I expect to move things around a little bit here and there, just to try different things and get guys comfortable with each other and renew some chemistry. So I expect to move around a fair bit."
Alex Kerfoot centered the third line with Pierre Engvall and Kasperi Kapanen and Frederik Gauthier was between veterans Kyle Clifford and Jason Spezza. On defense, the pairings were those that played together for long stretches during the season; Jake Muzzin and Justin Holl, Morgan Rielly and Cody Ceci, and Travis Dermott and Tyson Barrie.
The top power play unit of Matthews, Tavares, Marner, Nylander and Barrie remained intact with a second unit comprised of Spezza, Kerfoot, Kapanen, Hyman and Rielly. Marner was also paired with Mikheyev on the PK, with Kerfoot and Hyman as the other forwards, and the top two pairings (Rielly-Ceci, Muzzin-Holl) on defense.
Young prospects Nick Robertson and Rasmus Sandin were not initially placed in spots where you would suspect that they will be getting any playing time to start the playoffs. Robertson lined up with Marlies forwards Adam Brooks and Egor Korshkov, while Sandin was paired with Martin Marincin.
"(Nick) needs to find a way to be effective in all areas of the game. Offense is a big part of his game. He's been very successful, particularly this past year at proved himself to be an elite goal scorer at the junior level. So trying to find his way to get in the right timing, to find space to get shots and use his strengths. offensively, there's that part of it." Keefe said. "As he's going to learn, if he hasn't already here in the first couple days, it's a lot harder to do those things this level. So you got to be so much better in every area of the game."
The Leafs made another tinkering move to their roster after defenseman Timothy Liljegren was deemed unfit to play, replacing him with Marlies blueliner Mac Hollowell.
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