Leafs @ Panthers - Apr. 5th, 7:00pm - TSN4, Fan 590

[CarltonTheBear]

@
  45-19-5, 95 points | 48-15-6, 102 points

Projected Lines

Bunting-Matthews-Marner Mikheyev-Tavares-Kerfoot Abruzzese-Kampf-Engvall Clifford-Blackwell-Simmonds Rielly-Lyubushkin Brodie-Holl Giordano-Liljegren Kallgren

Verhaeghe-Barkov-Duclair Huberdeau-Bennett-Giroux Marchment-Lundell-Reinhart Lomberg-Luostarinen-Thornton Forsling-Weegar Chiarot-Gudas Hagg-Montour Bobrovsky

Scratches

William Nylander Jason Spezza Carl Dahlstrom Jake Muzzin

Maxim Mamin Petteri Lindbohm Lucas Carlsson

Game Notes

TOR
•Kallgren (4-2-1, 2.71 GAA, .906 Sv%) will start for the Leafs
•Muzzin is expected to return to the line-up for the first time since February 21st. Not going to bother guessing who he takes out though. The logical choice a couple of weeks ago was Liljegren, so the question now is has his play with Giordano forced Keefe to look at a different option
•Nylander will travel with the team to Florida and will once again be a game-time decision after missing Monday's game with an illness

FLA
•Bobrovsky (33-6-3, 2.64 GAA, .914 Sv%) will likely start for the Panthers

Injuries

•Rasmus Sandin - Knee - Injured Reserve •Ondrej Kase - Head - Injured Reserve •Petr Mrazek - Groin - Injured Reserve •William Nylander - Illness - Questionable •Jake Muzzin - Concussion - Probable

•Aaron Ekblad - Lower Body - Injured Reserve •Noel Acciari - Upper Body - Injured Reserve •Patric Hornqvist - Undisclosed - Injured Reserve •Markus Nutivaara - Lower Body - Injured Reserve

Stream Options

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NHL66

[Bender]

Am I the only one who thinks Flordia is really playing overly well for the personnel? Like how are cast offs like Marchment and Verhaghe doing so well? Ekblad has never had an almost ppg season, Sam Reinhart was never that great, Sam Bennett. Like I literally don't understand where all this offense is coming from.

[Zee]

Am I the only one who thinks Flordia is really playing overly well for the personnel? Like how are cast offs like Marchment and Verhaghe doing so well? Ekblad has never had an almost ppg season, Sam Reinhart was never that great, Sam Bennett. Like I literally don't understand where all this offense is coming from.

I don't get it either. Brobrovsky is an up and down goalie too, there was a time where he was brutal, hopefully that happens again in the playoffs if the Leafs play them

[Arn]

The bit about Liljegren in CtB's opening post, I think he HAS played himself into almost undroppable territory beside Giordano.

But I actually have no issue with him coming out for Muzzin so we can get some different pairings tried out. The more tested potential options we have for the playoffs the better in case Liljegren, for example, struggles or regresses in the post season, or someone else gets hurt.

[bustaheims]

Am I the only one who thinks Flordia is really playing overly well for the personnel? Like how are cast offs like Marchment and Verhaghe doing so well? Ekblad has never had an almost ppg season, Sam Reinhart was never that great, Sam Bennett. Like I literally don't understand where all this offense is coming from.

They have a few guys having career years, but, it's not as out of the blue as it seems. Reinhart's goal scoring is right around where it was in Buffalo (0.36/game this season compared to 0.3/game in his time in Buffalo), but, now that he has better supporting cast, he's getting more assists. Bennett always had the potential for this, and he is only 25. Maybe just a late bloomer, maybe just a career year. Really, other than Marchment and Verhaeghe, that's all it is - a bunch of guys having careers years at the same time, boosting each other's totals. That's turned a good team into a great one this season.

[Zee]

The bit about Liljegren in CtB's opening post, I think he HAS played himself into almost undroppable territory beside Giordano.

But I actually have no issue with him coming out for Muzzin so we can get some different pairings tried out. The more tested potential options we have for the playoffs the better in case Liljegren, for example, struggles or regresses in the post season, or someone else gets hurt.

My guess he goes:
Rielly-Lyubushkin
Giordano-Brodie
Muzzin-Holl

[CarltonTheBear]

Am I the only one who thinks Flordia is really playing overly well for the personnel? Like how are cast offs like Marchment and Verhaghe doing so well? Ekblad has never had an almost ppg season, Sam Reinhart was never that great, Sam Bennett. Like I literally don't understand where all this offense is coming from.

They have a few guys having career years, but, it's not as out of the blue as it seems. Reinhart's goal scoring is right around where it was in Buffalo (0.36/game this season compared to 0.3/game in his time in Buffalo), but, now that he has better supporting cast, he's getting more assists. Bennett always had the potential for this, and he is only 25. Maybe just a late bloomer, maybe just a career year. Really, other than Marchment and Verhaeghe, that's all it is - a bunch of guys having careers years at the same time, boosting each other's totals. That's turned a good team into a great one this season.

Signing Duclair after Ottawa let him go for reasons was also a great pick-up. Gustav Forsling ended up being a great waiver pick-up for them. Ryan Lomberg doesn't really have the offensive stats that some of the other guys do but he was another one of those young group 6 free agents that's become a big part of their bottom-6. Virtually every single swing that they've taken has been a triple or home run, it's kind of insane.

[CarltonTheBear]

My guess he goes:
Rielly-Lyubushkin
Giordano-Brodie
Muzzin-Holl

The only other scenario I see is taking Lyubushkin out of the line-up for Lily. He's been good but not necessarily great with Rielly and hasn't really played a major role on the PK with the other guys ahead of him. Obviously his physicality is something the team will value and that might be enough to keep him in the line-up but IF Liljegren absolutely needs to stay in that's the only move they'd make (Holl isn't and shouldn't be sitting). That would let them keep the Gio-Lily pairing in tact, re-unite Rielly and Brodie and have Muzzin and Holl get another chance to perform like they did last season.

The bigger question though really is what does the team do if Muzzin looks like he did at the start of this season as opposed to what we've seen before that. Because at that point he'd be the clear-cut answer for who sits. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

[Heroic Shrimp]

Don't discount the possibility of using 7 defensemen tonight.

[Kaberle15]

Don't discount the possibility of using 7 defensemen tonight.

I think Keef will do this.. take Clifford out of the lineup and dress 7 Ds.

Anyway, Go Leafs Go!!!

[herman]

Many Leafs are having career years too:
Bunting, Matthews, Marner (back half, i.e. 3 months of ugh), Nylander (despite 2.5 months of uhhh), Engvall, Mikheyev, Kampf, Liljegren, Campbell (aside from 2 months of yikes).

Florida has succeeded because they have an effective game plan that they've boiled down to some easy to follow instructions that just needs hard work to execute and let skill show up. They attack very aggressively on the rush across the full width of the ice with active defense (sound familiar?) and they bottle up defensive rush chances by sticking their defense together to steer the play wide before pinching it off (sound familiar?).

https://twitter.com/JhanHky/status/1392475259207626757
The full system sheet (original post) is locked, but this follow up on how to break down their defense, is still available to read. It's from last season, but still relevant.

The Leafs, as evidenced throughout the year, are especially equipped to make Florida look a little more middling than they're used to.

[Nik]

Am I the only one who thinks Flordia is really playing overly well for the personnel? Like how are cast offs like Marchment and Verhaghe doing so well? Ekblad has never had an almost ppg season, Sam Reinhart was never that great, Sam Bennett. Like I literally don't understand where all this offense is coming from.

I guess the other way to look at that is that they've done a first rate job of identifying talented cast-offs and given them room to grow. Like I think we all thought Duclair was a talented kid since he lit it up at the WJC, he just found himself in a bunch of terrible situations.

[Nik]

Many Leafs are having career years too:
Bunting, Matthews, Marner (back half, i.e. 3 months of ugh), Nylander (despite 2.5 months of uhhh), Engvall, Mikheyev, Kampf, Liljegren, Campbell (aside from 2 months of yikes).

There's a pretty drastic difference between Auston Matthews and a bunch of highly touted first round picks having their best years and what Florida has been able to do in terms of adding scrap heap guys and turning them into solid players.

[herman]

Why is Marner having a resurgence? Why did his magic disappear in the first place?

It certainly wasn't lack of trying. It's all in his head. Struggling Marner (while still effective-ish defensively) is the Marner that tries too hard to make the perfect play. The pursuit of perfection is Marner's hubris; when he tries to put his hometown team on his back, he freezes up and no longer plays at the speed of instinct, but at the grinding slog of ruminating on what-ifs and shoulda-woulda-couldas.

After the break, Marner re-emerged rejuvenated, confident, free, and most importantly: happy (Thanks, Greg Harden!). He embraced the way he has always played and succeeded: Chaos Magician. Best Marner doesn't stand still so he can start every play making the perfect pass to the perfect spot for the perfect shot. Best Marner is always moving and throws or skates the puck into a crowd so while they are trying to sort out who is doing what and covering whom, he uses his highly trained puck handling and intuitive sense of where his teammates are to suddenly snap chaos into order. Now the is puck suddenly free in dangerous ice for a Leaf and in the net.

[herman]

Many Leafs are having career years too:
Bunting, Matthews, Marner (back half, i.e. 3 months of ugh), Nylander (despite 2.5 months of uhhh), Engvall, Mikheyev, Kampf, Liljegren, Campbell (aside from 2 months of yikes).

There's a pretty drastic difference between Auston Matthews and a bunch of highly touted first round picks having their best years and what Florida has been able to do in terms of adding scrap heap guys and turning them into solid players.

The fun part is, most of those career years could easily project to be just stepping stones to the next career year (except for Campbell and Mikheyev, probably). As cool and as fun as Marchment and Verhaeghe's stories are, they're at their peak right now. It's the right time, but it's not going to last. Sam Bennet has a bit more to go though.