As the Maple Leafs go about squeezing water from a stone, Sheldon Keefe isn’t making plans for a full-time reunion quite yet.
With the Leafs down 2-1 in the best-of-seven, first-round series against the Boston Bruins and without star winger William Nylander, Keefe on Thursday indicated he will continue to ponder putting Mitch Marner on Auston Matthews’ right wing, but is not ready to commit to that on every shift.
Considering the tight nature of the series at five-on-five, a pairing of Matthews and Marner, taking into account their terrific chemistry, could be of great benefit.
Scoring goals continues to be a post-season issue for Toronto, whether at five-on-five or on the power play, as the Leafs have scored more than two goals just once their past 10 playoffs games. That came in Game 2 against the Bruins on Monday when the Leafs gutted out a 3-2 victory.
We’ll always look at that,” Keefe said in reference to reuniting Matthews and Marner. “I’ve done it a little bit here and there, primarily off the faceoff. I’ll continue to look at it, but the Matthews-(Max) Domi-(Tyler) Bertuzzi line was outstanding in Game 2.
“That’s part of it. You don’t want to disrupt one line for another and then you’re kind of left with no lines. You really want to get multiple lines going. It so happened (in Game 3) that (John) Tavares-Marner-(Matthew) Knies line scored us a huge goal, generated a number of really good chances for us.
“There’s lots of benefits that we’ve seen through that. We have to trust it and work through it, but also look to find our spots to change it up when it suits us.”
Regarding Nylander, Keefe wouldn’t comment on a report by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman that the star winger has had issues with migraine headaches, thereby keeping him out of the lineup for the first three games of the series.
We made it clear at the beginning (of the series) that we’re not going to comment on — whether it’s Willie or any other player (who is out) — their status or situation at this time of year, especially,” Keefe said. “We’ve been working with Willie to give him the time that he needs to be ready to play. The medical team works with him on a daily basis to see where he’s at and they continue to assess that.”
The situation arose last Thursday, the morning after the Leafs’ regular-season finale in Tampa. It took many off-guard, as Nylander was the only Leafs player to skate in all 82 games during 2023-24.
The Leafs had a full day off on Thursday — only Keefe was made available to media at the Ford Performance Centre — but we should learn more about Nylander’s status at practice on Friday.
Of course, Nylander will be welcomed back the minute he is ready, and would be expected to give the club an offensive boost, as he is coming off his second 40-goal season and a career-high 98 points.
Having Nylander play with centre Pontus Holmberg wouldn’t give the Nylander a full opportunity to use his abundance of skills, though. Keefe could have further line decisions to make beyond Matthews and Marner. Not having Bobby McMann (lower body) doesn’t help either.
Meanwhile, Keefe didn’t sound overly concerned with the lack of production on the power play. The Leafs are 1-for-11 in the series and Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman, who you think would remain in the Boston net for Game 4 on Saturday, has been a major factor.
From a coaching perspective, you look at it from a process point of view,” Keefe said. “The most important thing is are you generating chances? From that perspective, we’ve done that quite well. We’re entering the zone at a high rate, setting up at a high rate, spending time in the zone. The last two games we’ve generated 11 high-danger chances in the slot. Those are hard to come by.
“We have only one goal to show show for it, so we’ve got to look for ways to put our players in positions where we can convert easier and better. At the same time, we have to both stay with it and trust it, but also continue
to work at it and adjust.”