MONTREAL — A lower-body injury to Mitch Marner sustained in a 4-1 Toronto Maple Leafs loss to the Boston Bruins forced Sheldon Keefe to tinker with his lines on Saturday and he decided to move Tyler Bertuzzi back onto the top line alongside Auston Matthews and William Nylander.
Keefe rationalized the move in a couple of different ways.
1) He wanted to keep the part of Bertuzzi and Nylander together, seeing how it had worked offensive on the second line with Max Domi as their center.
2) Keefe "envisioned" Bertuzzi making his way back to the top line after he had opened the season alongside Matthews and Marner on the top line before being pushed further down the lineup.
So how did it go against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre
"They weren’t very good," Keefe said. "They just individually weren’t very good but it’s a night where the group picked them up. So that’s good."
The Maple Leafs defeated the Canadiens 3-2 thanks to goals from Bobby McMann, Domi and John Tavares. The Bertuzzi-Matthews-Nylander lines played 12:10 of even-strength hockey together and had a 27 percent share of the expected goals while they were on the ice, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
And it showed. There were numerous times when each player either over-skated a puck, made a poorly-timed pass or caused some other error, leading to a scoring chance for Montreal.
The Maple Leafs are scheduled to practice on Monday where an update on Marner is expected. His leg appeared to buckle on Thursday after attempting a shot on goal in the second period, while his team was down 2-1 to the Boston Bruins.
Marner currently leads the team with 51 assists while also scoring 25 goals in 62 games this season.
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