Kadri, Komarov in line for brief split
Goal-starved club juggling for back-to-back road dates to shake month-long funk
Leo and Naz are splitsville. That would be Leo Komarov and Nazem Kadri, who have been skating on the same line together pretty much since 2015-16 — but not at Tuesday’s Maple Leafs practice.
The breakup, though, appears to be temporary. Coach Mike Babcock said he is simply trying to generate more offence and gain better matchups over the next two road games — Wednesday in Chicago, Thursday in Dallas — where he won’t have the last say on line changes.
Komarov and Kadri — buddies on and off the ice — are likely to be skating together again for the Leafs’ next home game on Jan. 31, or sooner if Babcock thinks it will help the club shake a month-long funk.
They’re playing like a middle-ofthe-pack team, winning just six of their last 18 games after taking 20 of the first 31. While they’re in no immediate danger off falling out of a playoff spot, there’s plenty of work to be done:
They’ve won three of nine games in January, and went just 2-2-2 in six consecutive home games to open the month.
They threw 64 shot attempts at Colorado in a 4-2 loss Monday, and a whopping 98 in the direction of Senators goalie Craig Anderson in a narrow win in Ottawa Saturday.
They’ve been outscored 25-20 this month and won just three of seven one-goal games.
The opportunity to make strides in a home-heavy portion of the schedule has been lost because of a lack of scoring — even though they’ve produced ample shot attempts and controlled the puck possession against some very good teams.
“We weren’t dangerous enough in the offensive zone (against Colorado),” said Babcock, who was honoured with the Order of Hockey in Canada on Tuesday.
“We had the puck all the time, but we weren’t dangerous enough. So, we just looked at what we can do . . . we’ve been talking about (line shuffles) for a long time. It’s not like a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
Indeed, talk about the coach sticking to his line combos surfaced over two weeks ago. The solution for now is to split up Komarov and Kadri, with Mitch Marner moving from the fourth line to skate with Kadri and Patrick Marleau.
“Mitch is really a skill player. He’s a great playmaker . . . he’ll give us a bit of a different look,” said Kadri, who has one goal in his last 20 games. My job doesn’t change. It’s simple … I can get into open spaces, and Mitch is elusive. He finds the open man. Hopefully we can be a scoring threat.”
Maximizing Marner’s talents has been a topic of discussion all season.
“Naz is a smart player. He can control play down the middle, and Patty is a fast skater,” said Marner, who has two goals in his last 12 games and six for the season. “If we keep moving our feet as a line, I think we can create a lot of chances and be successful.”
For now, Komarov looks set to join a fourth line with Dominic Moore and Kasperi Kapanen, a superb skater who was called up from the Marlies on Tuesday. Centre Frederik Gauthier — who performed admirably on defence but spent too much time in his own zone — returned to the AHL.
Moore, who has been a healthy scratch six times, draws back in while Matt Martin — a fixture on that fourth line, averaging about eight minutes of ice time — will be a healthy scratch (for the second time in his career) in Chicago barring a last-minute change.
The Leafs also summoned defenceman Rinat Valiev from the Marlies. Babcock said the club is trying to create “unbelievable” depth along the blue line throughout the organization.
The need for reinforcements is in part because of the long-term injury absence of top-four D-man Nikita Zaitsev, out since mid-December. He skated before practice, but won’t return to game action until some time after next week’s all-star break.