Leafs Practice Notes: Laughton moves to third line, Pacioretty starts skating, Jarnkrok back in

Berube paused it because he felt the passes were sloppy and wanted the Leafs to clean up the mistakes that plagued them during Saturday’s frustrating loss to the Nashville Predators. He told reporters after that game he was perplexed by the types of defensive breakdowns he saw, saying there was ‘no reason’ for it.

“I don’t know if I am surprised,” Berube said. “There are things that happen throughout the year — mental mistakes — and it could be a number of things. I haven’t seen the mental mistakes like we made tonight in a while.”

It is certainly not ideal to have a team reprimanded by their coach this late in the regular season, though it is understandable given the urgency required to get ready for playoff hockey. We shall see how the players respond to Berube’s calls to clean up their fumbles on Tuesday night.

Max Pacioretty, who has not played since February 8th against the Vancouver Canucks, skating on his own pad of ice during practice. He was seen on the ice alongside Jani Hakanpaa ahead of the morning skate last Monday but has not been able to join the Leafs for practice as of yet.

He was placed on LTIR on March 8th and is not eligible to return to the lineup until early April, which would be towards the end of the regular season. Because the Leafs currently have just under $200K in cap space, that means the only way for Pacioretty to get into a game before the playoffs is for someone to get sent down and there is no indication anyone will need to report to the Marlies. You can therefore expect to see Pacioretty back in the mix for Game 1 when the salary cap is no longer a hinderance.

Here is how the lines looked at practice courtesy of TSN’s Mark Masters:

Forwards

Matthew Knies-Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner

Bobby McMann-John Tavares-William Nylander

Scott Laughton-Max Domi-Nick Robertson

Steven Lorentz-Pontus Holmberg-Calle Jarnkrok

Defence

Jake McCabe-Chris Tanev

Morgan Rielly-Brandon Carlo

Simon Benoit-Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Goalies

Joseph Woll

Anthony Stolarz

Extras

David Kampf, Philippe Myers

The big changes to the lineup are in the bottom six, with Scott Laughton slotting back up on the third line though he remains on the wings with Max Domi continuing to take draws. There will certainly be some frustration from the fans given how slow of a start it has been for one of the Leafs’ marquee adds at the deadline, but at least he is in a better position to succeed. Having two centres on the third line should help ease the burden on Domi from a defensive standpoint so perhaps this one could work for all three members.

As a result of Laughton’s promotion, Pontus Holmberg reverts to the fourth line where will skate down the middle alongside Steven Lorentz and Calle Jarnkrok. It would be the latter’s first game back in the lineup since Wednesday after he was a healthy scratch for the previous two contests to make room for David Kampf. Kampf will have now been held out of the lineup for three of the past five games, which leaves one to wonder what the future holds for him beyond this season.

Beyond that, the rest of the forward lineup remains unchanged and the defensive pairings are intact. Berube kept the power play units as they were for the previous game and there is reason to believe the penalty kill units will be mostly identical apart from Kampf’s absence.

What remains unknown at the time of filing is who will be getting the nod for Tuesday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Joseph Woll got into three of the last four games for the Leafs but is fresh off surrending four straight goals to the Predators. Anthony Stolarz is the fresher of the two and his previous start was a win, though he has not quite been as dominant as earlier in the season. We will have a better idea when the morning skate commences as it seems that Berube has yet to decide which goalie he is giving the start to as of yet.