The Toronto Maple Leafs have been struggling out of the gates, and now could try a nuclear option.
Toronto is coming off a 5-2 home loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday. It was the Maple Leafs’ second-straight loss, and they dropped their record to 3-3-1. Amid the slow start, NHL analyst Luke Fox of Sportsnet urges the Maple Leafs to try a ‘nuclear option’ of playing William Nylander on the top line with Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies.
“As the search for a top-line right wing to skate alongside Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies continues, Berube revealed that he has been mulling the idea of loading up his best left wing, centreman, and right wing on a more full-time basis,” Fox wrote. “William Nylander has received nearly 21 minutes’ worth of bump-up shifts to Matthews’ unit over these first seven games, usually when pressing for a tying goal or in an O-zone faceoff near the end of a period.”
With the Maple Leafs’ offense struggling, Fox believes Toronto may try Nylander on the top line. Although it would stack the one line, it could, in turn, help produce more offense, especially for Matthews, who has struggled out of the gates.
Maple Leafs Coach Thinking About Stacking Top Line
With Toronto’s offense struggling, Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube is open to the idea of moving Nylander to the top line.
Ahead of the season, Berube said he liked to balance his lines, but that may soon change.
“I mean, I always want a little balance,” Berube said. “But it’s definitely something that I’m thinking about.”
As for the top line, Berube admits he’s expecting more from the Maple Leafs’ top line.
“When you want to create offensive zone time, you got to put pucks in with a purpose. You got to then you got to go and get it, and you got to be physical, and you got to be heavy on your sticks,” Berube said of Matthews and Knies. “You got to win those battles to get those pucks back. And they just got to do better job with it. That’s really the bottom line.”
If Berube doesn’t put Nylander on the top line, rookie Easton Cowan should get a chance on the top line again.
John Tavares Believes Toronto is Playing ‘Sloppy’
Although the top line has struggled this season, the whole team hasn’t been playing up to expectations.
After Toronto’s 5-2 loss to the Devils, Maple Leafs star forward John Tavares believes the team is playing sloppy.
“We’re still just a little too sloppy,” Tavares said. “We have to be smarter with the puck and the way we’re managing the game. And a team like that, with the way they can skate and how quick they are in transition, obviously it really hurt us. And then we’re chasing it.
“We talk about checking and grinding and the things that we want to make part of our identity and that we do well, build on some of those things that we brought into our game last year. So, we haven’t gotten to that consistently enough.”
Toronto returns to the ice on Friday against the Buffalo Sabres.
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