The Leafs need to stick with the spread out offence going forward

If you look back to each playoff series this team has played since head coach Sheldon Keefe took over, you’ll find one constant with the lineups he iced – Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner on one line, John Tavares and William Nylander on the other. Occasionally, he would swap Marner and Nylander during the regular season, but when the going got tough and the stakes grew even higher, it would always go back to Matthews/Marner and Tavares/Nylander.

It made sense for some of those teams. Back when the Leafs’ bottom six was mostly composed of possession-driving, low-event offensive players like Alex Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev, and Pierre Engvall, loading up your top two lines ensured that the top six carried the mail offensively, the third line (often centred by David Kampf) worked in a checking role, often getting matchups against opposing teams’ top offensive threats, and the fourth line was always some mix of veterans, tough guys, and rookies. It was a lineup formation that made sense for those teams, but the issue that comes with it is that if you’re the opponent and figure out a way to shut down “the core four”, your job is essentially done. It’s why they dried up at the hands of players like Nick Foligno in 2019-20 and Phillip Danault in 2020-21. People love to point at defence and/or goaltending for reasons why the Leafs haven’t been able to find much playoff success in the Matthews era, but in reality, their main issue in recent years has been the offence drying up in elimination games.

When general manager Brad Treliving took over this past offseason, it was very clear what he was trying to do. With players like Kerfoot leaving and others like Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi serving as replacements, the Leafs were padding their forward group with players who perhaps weren’t as good defensively as the Mikheyevs and the Engvalls, but a clear step above them from an offensive standpoint. Players who had a knack for the front of the net and an ability to score greasy goals, and players who could be relied on to take some weight off of the top dogs.

For much of the season, the Leafs have stuck to the same philosophy they’ve used every year, but the injury of Marner in a game against the Boston Bruins in early March forced Keefe to get a little more creative than he expected to. It’s early, but the Marner injury may have provided a silver lining – the realization that they have the depth to get creative offensively.

Lately, the Leafs have been using Bertuzzi and Domi on Matthews’ wings, and so far, it’s been a success. We all know the pace that Matthews is playing at right now, and with ten goals and 18 points in his last ten games, it doesn’t appear he’s hurting without Marner on his wing too much. His linemates have benefitted from the extra ice time – Domi has eight points in his last ten games, and Bertuzzi has six goals and eight points of his own in the last ten, and in addition to this, both players are relentless in puck pursuits along the boards and equally happy to jump into the scrum to defend their leading goal-scorer if needed. While neither of his wingers are super physical players, they’re not afraid to mix it up in front of the net and give Matthews an extra sense of security.