The biggest lineup change
prior to puck-drop was the pairing together of
Auston Matthewsand
Mitch Marner. Mike Babcock has rarely had the two stars play together outside of the shift following penalty kills, but given the Leafs had only scored ten goals in the previous four games while averaging just 24.5 shots on goal, it was obvious a spark was needed. The general rule Babcock adheres to makes sense in that the Leafs are a deeper team overall if Marner and Matthews are both driving separate lines successfully, but
this is something Babcock should have in his back pocket and be willing to go to more often than he has.
Both are elite offensive players who won’t need much time together to figure it out, but there is a benefit to breeding this kind of familiarity for when the going gets tough offensively for the team down the stretch and into the playoffs, as it inevitably will. It could be this combination that comes through with a huge goal at a key time in a big playoff game for the team.
They didn’t make a ton of noise at 5-on-5, but there were early signs of
chemistry shown between the two, and Matthews seemed to have more jump. He was in an eight-game goalless drought going in and clearly wanted this one badly on the power play