One of the perks of coaching this edition of the Maple Leafs is shuffling the deck and always coming up with a king or an ace up front.
So, it was Friday for coach Craig Berube, who decided to keep Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner on the same line to face the Washington Capitals, with little concern he was separating Marner and John Tavares — which was a big part of the record of 7-2 record when Matthews was hurt.
Centre Matthews, Marner and left winger Matthew Knies will begin together, after helping change fortunes late in Wednesday’s game against Nashville.
Berube also had Tavares between William Nylander and Pontus Holmberg, undoing Fraser Minten as a second-line winger, returning him to third-line centre.
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While studying the morning line changes is almost a religion in Toronto, there could be in-game revisions as Berube has a nose for when things are get stale.
“The way it ended last game, I think you start that way tonight,” Berube reasoned. “You change things up sometimes, it works, you stick with it for a bit and see how it goes.
“I have conversations with guys when I’m going to move things around. Not so much in a game because that’s spur of the moment, but at practice it’s ‘this is where I’m going to put you today and why.’ Normally, it’s pretty easy.”
The rookie Minten’s greater value in the middle between Nick Robertson and Steven Lorentz made for an easy call, too.
“I feel like having him down there in that spot, he’s a solid defender down low and he makes that lone stronger,” Berube said.
Friday will be the Leafs third straight home game and starts a back-to-back with a trip to Pittsburgh. Alex Ovechkin’s broken leg will keep him from adding to his 44 goals and 78 points in 60 career games versus Toronto, though Washington’s team offence is not to be under-rated, having scored 28 more goals than the Leafs.
But at 56.2%, Toronto is the league leader in team offensive-zone faceoff wins, a key to its puck-control metrics and more enhanced when they use five forwards on the power play. Matthews, Tavares, Nylander and Marner are all used to taking draws.
Tavares is just under 59% solo in all areas of the rink and Matthews picked up in the dots where he was before his back injury.
“A lot of focus is on the centres, but wingers are extremely important in helping with a lot of 50-50 pucks, retrievals and battles,” Tavares said. “Even ones that you lose (in the offensive zone), just trying to stall plays when you’re already on their half of the ice, trying to keep the play there and earning pucks back, you’re in better position.
“Whether it’s something set or just everyone just being on the same page, it’s critical. All parts of the game we want to work on. That (offensive draws) is something we’re good at so that’s a good sign.”
The 6-foot-3 Knies is all-in to help.
“It’s knowing your job, when to jump in, make the right reads, when to pick a guy,” he said. “The centres are doing a great job, getting to pucks or allowing us to get it back to the defence.
“There is a lot of depth up there at centre and everyone is good at draws.”
Anthony Stolarz is to start in net versus Washington, setting up Joseph Woll in Pittsburgh where his former general manager, Kyle Dubas, will be watching.
Stolarz’s .924 save percentage is just ahead of Woll’s, another reason why the Leafs are in the hunt for first place in the Atlantic Division.
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