Leafs coach Keefe tweaks sputtering power play

With the Toronto Maple Leafs mired in a power-play slump, scoring once in 24 opportunities in their past nine games, coach Sheldon Keefe has no choice but to make some changes to the power-play units.

Morgan Rielly has been taken off the No. 1 unit to run the second group, while Timothy Liljegren will man the point on the top unit. Tyler Bertuzzi is back on the No. 1 unit as well, with Auston Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares.

Max Domi, Matthew Knies, Nick Robertson and Bobby Mcmann are the forwards with Rielly on the second unit.

“With Liljegren the right shot at the top (of the first group), and with some of our movement, especially losing the righty with Mitch (Marner’s injury), we think it’s important with Auston and Willie’s ability to shoot and finish that having another right shot is helpful,” Keefe said. “We get Morgan working with the other group and give that group a boost, too.”

The Leafs were fifth in the NHL before games on Tuesday with a power-play conversion rate of 26.1 per cent.

“There’s no lack of confidence,” Rielly said. “We’re going to stick with it, keep working at it, and it’s going to go for us eventually.

“If you look back at the last two games, we moved it around pretty well and we’ve got chances, it just hasn’t gone in.”

As the Leafs departed for Philadelphia, the expectation was that Ilya Samsonov would start against the Flyers on Tuesday, followed by Joseph Woll getting the nod in Washington against the Capitals on Wednesday.

Woll’s next start will be his first since March 7 in Boston, with the time off between games in the past 12 days a product of both a gap in the Leafs schedule and the fine play of Samsonov.

Woll also will get a start this weekend, as the Leafs play back-to-back against Edmonton at home on Saturday and in Carolina on Sunday.

If he does start in Washington, Woll will recall the Leafs’ 4-1 win in D.C. back on Oct. 24, when he made 37 saves. Alex Ovechkin had 14 shots on goal that night.

“Playing teams for the first time in my career is always exciting, especially with someone like Ovechkin,” Woll said. “He shoots the puck a lot is what I learned from that game, so I’ll be ready for it.”