TORONTO — How concerned should the Toronto Maple Leafs be that, with only a dozen games to go, they still haven’t figured out the ideal way to roll their dozen forwards?
“It`s a little bit of a battle still,” head coach Craig Berube admits, when asked if he’s settled on a third line.
Toronto’s first unit of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Matthew Knies has essentially been in place since Day 1 of training camp and has outscored the opposition 27-22 this season.
Because Berube prefers to work in forward pairs and has shown a reluctance to spread his Core Four over three lines, John Tavares and William Nylander appear destined to start Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs together. And while the Leafs have been outshot 269-250 with that duo on the ice 5-on-5, their elite finishing abilities have the Tavares-Nylander combo outscoring their foes 29-17.
For now, that leaves Berube fiddling with a third-line duo of Max Domi and Nick Robertson — two offensively skilled but undersized waterbugs with defensive question marks.
“They’ve scored for us, and some good secondary scoring, right? I think Max’s game has gone to another level. And I think there’s even more there,” Berube says.
“I work in pairs more than lines, I would say. Always have. You got to mix things up once in a while. And we do that. We’ll move a winger here and there around.”
The Leafs do have a 16-14 scoring edge with Domi and Robertson together, and that advantage goes up a tad (10-7) when they’re joined by the speedy Bobby McMann.
Recently, though, Berube has used McMann’s forechecking to energize Tavares-Nylander.
“He’s been a good fit there,” Berube says. “He’s been there with those guys before, and they’ve come through.”
OK. But Pontus Holmberg hasn’t meshed as well Domi and Robertson.
And wasn’t Scott Laughton brought in to skate in the top nine, not to kill 12 minutes on the fourth unit? And will Max Pacioretty — stuck on LTIR with the Maple Leafs pressed to the cap — be a surprise playoff option? He had some decent stretches on the second line.
Tristan Blackwood