All season, the Toronto Maple Leafs bottom-six has been a mess. Max Domi specifically has caused turmoil, preventing the Leafs from creating any sort of shutdown third line that we’re used to seeing.
Brad Treliving even sent the Philadelphia Flyers Nikita Grebenkin and a first-round pick for Scott Laughton, hoping a new 3C would fix Toronto’s depth issues.
And unlike Sheldon Keefe, Craig Berube has been pretty set in his ways, never shaking up the lineup except for once during the Leafs worst run of the year.
But now, with just two games left, apparently it’s the right time for the blender to come out. On Sunday, Pontus Holmberg started with John Tavares and William Nylander. By the end of the game, Domi had taken his place.
Leafs fans have been begging for some roster shakeup for a while now, but is it too late for this? The playoffs start this weekend, will the Leafs be ready?
The lines make a lot of sense
Before anything, I think the most important angle here is if the new lines actually work. If they do, then Berube is making a calculated risk, betting the Leafs can adapt on the fly and still be at their best with new linemates.
And in my opinion, the new lines make a lot of sense.
Domi, together with Tavares and Nylander, creates a high-flying, all-offence trio that will be a threat to score every time they’re on the ice. There will never be a defensive draw for this group, but that’s okay. It’s not as if Tavares and Nylander made a great shutdown pair to begin with, and finding Domi a spot where he doesn’t have to worry about d-zone starts should help him a ton.
The third line, McMann–Holmberg–Robertson, seems to gel, all three possessing skills the other two lack.
McMann is the forechecker, relentlessly pursuing pucks in the offensive zone. Holmberg is the defensively responsible centre, who can still skate a puck through the neutral zone and create offence. And Robertson is obviously the scorer, benefitting from his linemates’ hard work and burying pucks as a reward.
In theory, these two lines really make sense. And the fourth line might be the best it’s been all season.
Right now, it’s Lorentz–Laughton–Jarnkrok. Once David Kampf is back, I’m assuming he’ll slot in as the 4C and Jarnkrok will come out (he hasn’t been very good since returning), moving Laughton to the wing where he’s more comfortable.
This is such a good fourth line that will give up nothing in the defensive zone, using three of the Leafs best grinders together. Honestly, this is the best fourth line the Leafs have had all year.
Is it too late?
At first, this kind of shakeup this late in the season seems counterintuitive. Messing up any sort of rhythm, especially when the Leafs have been winning, feels disruptive and unnecessary.
But Craig Berube has won a Stanley Cup, and he knows what it takes to go on a deep playoff run. Finding the best lines, no matter what point of the season the Leafs are in, seems to be the most important thing.
And it’s really hard to go into the postseason with a messy bottom-six. The group has been weird all season, with a “scoring” line that doesn’t really score and guys that don’t fit the mould of playoff depth forwards.
So, if now is the time, go for it. We’ll have to see what the future holds, maybe Berube goes back to his normal lines as early as tonight. But if there’s something he doesn’t like, he should try to fix it. It’s not too late to try, even with just two games left.
