JETS DOWN MAKESHIFT LEAFS AS TRAINING CAMP 2.0 BEGINS
It was billed as a preview of the North Division final. And yet, Toronto's 5-2 loss to Winnipeg on Thursday had more of a pre-season feel to it.
Most of that had to do with the Maple Leafs' roster than the actual game.
Winnipeg was missing captain Blake Wheeler. Toronto was without leading scorer Auston Matthews, winger William Nylander and goalie Frederik Andersen. Meanwhile, both teams' trade deadline acquisitions were sitting in quarantine.
That forced both squads into dressing the kind of lineup you might see in a meaningless exhibition game.
Get used to it.
With one month to go until the end of the regular season, the Leafs have to be strategic about how they approach these final 12 games. They obviously want to stay ahead of the Jets, Oilers and Canadiens in the standings. But even more important than locking up first place in the division is making sure that the team is healthy, rested and ready to go for what they hope is a long playoff run.
That means we could see more of Pierre Engvall, Nick Robertson and Adam Brooks — and less of Matthews and other key players — as the team goes through the evaluation process of determining who should be playing when the games really matter.
In other words, welcome to Training Camp 2.0.
When the playoffs begin next month, the Leafs won't be playing as many as six players who were in the lineup on Thursday, because Matthews, Nylander, Andersen, Nick Foligno, Riley Nash and defenceman Ben Hutton should all be healthy and out of quarantine. Outside of Robertson, Brooks and maybe David Rittich, good luck predicting who the other odd men out will be.
“Yeah, we're going to take it a day at a time,” said Keefe. “Obviously, a big part of it right now is to get all our guys we acquired at the deadline through their quarantines and have them around. And once we do that, we're going to have more bodies around here — NHL bodies, guys who are going to be a part of our group — so we can look at those things at that time. But there are a number of challenges there.
“You want to make sure guys get appropriate rest, but you also want to make sure guys are sharp and you want to utilize your depth and get everybody in, but then you don't have a lot of time to play what you feel is going to be your group when the playoffs begin. So those are all of things we're balancing.”
Soon, it won't just be a balancing act of who plays — but also how much they'll play and in what situations they `re on the ice.
We saw some of that on Thursday.
Alex Kerfoot was at centre on the second line, while Adam Brooks and Nick Robertson were called up for fourth-line roles. Meanwhile, the Leafs got a chance to see Joe Thornton in a checking-type role in a game that seemed more about trying new things than necessarily trying to pick up two points.
Some of it made sense. John Tavares didn't look out of place in Matthews' spot on a line with Mitch Marner Alex Galchenyuk, with all three connecting on a tick-tack-toe goal in the first period. But having to pull Campbell after giving up three goals on six shots in the first period is probably the kind of change that Keefe would rather have avoided.
Expect to see more of this kind of experimentation, however, as the coaching staff tries to accommodate Toronto's growing roster.
By next week, the Leafs could have Matthews and Andersen back from injury, Nylander off the COVID protocol list, and each and every one of their trade deadline acquisitions out of quarantine. That will give them somewhere around 16 forwards, seven defencemen and three goalies fighting for 23 spots.
For the bubble players, these next few weeks are audition time. And the timing couldn't be better.
With Toronto's game on Saturday against Vancouver likely getting moved back a day, the Leafs could be playing their next five games in seven days. That's even more reason for Keefe to toss the lines in the blender. After all, you never know what the playoffs are going to bring — whether it's injuries or the daily chess battle of line-matching.
You're going to want to see Foligno playing with as many different players as possible to see where he best fits in. You're going to want to see if Andersen can start multiple games. You're going to see what Nash looks like on the penalty kill and what Hutton can do next to Zach Bogosian on the third defensive pairing, and whether Robertson's wheels are more of an asset than Joe Thornton's experience.
While they're at it, maybe they can also experiment with the anemic power play.
The good thing for the Leafs is that they play the Habs, likely their first round opponent, four more times before the year is done. They also have three more games against the Jets — games in which the rosters could be more reflective of what we might see in the playoffs.
That should give Keefe more time to tinker before settling on a final roster.