Barrie practiced today, it's likely that he plays tomorrow. Moore also has a chance to be back

I would still sit out Barrie a game to give him some time, that blocked shot looked innocent but You never know and I heard Moore has a chance but same with him give him another game off cause a shoulder injury can get worse pretty quick

*loses in the first round to Boston
*City goes in flames again

TSN GUYS: Why aren't Matthews and Nylander playing up what theyre getting paid. Matthews has what, 19 goals? To me, it doesn't matter because of those 34 games, hes probably disappeared about 20 of them. That's not good enough for the 2nd highest player in the league. I barely notice him out there.

Yup, agree about Matthews. Needs to pick up his game. I’m sure he will.

Did u hear that segment on TSN?

Can’t forget the passed 4 cup winners haven’t had a player make over 9.5m. Leafs have 3 lol

What is funny is that when he isn't noticed, its not because he isn't getting chances, he does almost ever game. His line dominates possession, and when he isn't being noticed, its a good thing, because when he is noticed its either because he's scoring points, or its because he made some terrible mistake that cost a goal. The less that happens is a good thing. People are hilarious to blame Matthews for whatever it is they are blaming him for. Just trolls wanting to gripe about the leafs for whatever reason they feel validates their disdain for the team. Its pretty dumb.

No I did not. But Matthews has disappeared.

Leafs Bruins isn't an option this season because Toronto isn't good enough to make it into a Wildcard spot. If they can't unseat BUF or TBL for a division spot, they probably miss lol.

Leafs shouldn’t have a problem with knocking out buffalo, leafs have better depth scoring(not by a lot though) a bonified #1 starter and the defence of both teams is about equal Tampa has struggled like the leafs so it’s a coin flip, Florida has picked up there game so they are a threat and Montreal as much as I hate to say it may actually make 3rd in the division this year if they play well like they had been for a few games pryer to the Detroit loss

If they are moving Kerfoot off of 3C I'd like to see him on Matthews left wing. They need some consistent performance in that spot and if Kerfoot can show well that might help jumpstart that line. Engvall can play centre as well if they need him to, but only lower down in the lineup.

Kap on the 4th line is a classic Babcock-level overreaction to one bad game. And I hope that Barrie-Reilly don't play together much, they are making me nervous.

I doubt Liljegren gets thrown on the top pair in his first NHL game, if he’s in it’ll be on third pair with Dermott. Breaking up the Mikheyev Kerfoot Engvall line after how well they played together Saturday makes little sense either.

The third line looked so good against Edmonton I’d be hesitant to break them up right now. Could try Moore on the Matthews Nylander line if he’s ready to go, or maybe Spezza if he’s not or if they want to ease him back up to speed. It leaves Kappy on the 4th line by default which should help dominate the other teams 4th line. He just hasn’t looked good this year playing his off wing.

Not saying give liljegren top pairing minutes but playing with a guy like rielly is smart or maybe even muzzin but for sure play him 16-18 minutes to get him thrown right into the fire, he has improved a lot on the defensive side of the game this year which is nice and yeah it was just a thought for the forwards lines

No he hasn’t, it was a dumb decision to do that in the first place. To start the year the lines should have been

Johnson-Matthews-Nylander
Moore-Tavares-Marner
Mikeyev-Kerfoot-Kapanen
Timashov-Gauthier-Spezza

Rielly- Ceci
Muzzin-Holl
Marincin-Barrie

Andersen
Hutchinson

Muzzin would be a safe choice but him and Holl have been a solid shutdown pair for us recently. Rielly just too much of a risk taker to give him a rookie partner. Dermott seems like a nice mix of the other two lefties style so he’d be safest bet to play him with in my opinion. I’d say Marincin if i knew we’d be getting the AHL version of him but that guy doesn’t seem to be same one we get when he plays with the big club

I agree. Some guys can play both wings no problem, some guys thrive playing their off wing, and some guys just look out of place. Kappy is guy who has looked out of place. Which is unfortunate because last year when he was missing the net a lot with his shot short side I wanted to see him on his off wing like Ovie plays, but this year has shown he’s not comfortable there

Do you mean on overdrive?

I believe he's talking about overdrive unless they had a similar convo on tsn.

Why do you think it would be a good idea to put Liljegren with Rielly? The kids got to get his feet wet, the last thing he needs is to be tasked with covering up for Rielly's defensive blunders. Let the kid play 3rd pair with Dermmy to ease him into it.

Barrie should have played over Holl earlier in the lineup. Him and Muzzin had played together before which was part of the reason Dubas traded for him in the first place. Unfortunately it didn't work out but they were viewed as one of the better 2nd pairs in the league going into the season. Other than that your spot on!

The Leafs are going to be hard pressed to beat Buffalo. Nobody on the Leafs is anywhere near Jack Eichel this season, and Buffalo's Defense is better. Granted Freddy is much better than Ulmark, but Buffalo at least has a backup they can actually play. At this rate, Freddy is going to burn out in March.

Writing off Tampa would be incredibly stupid. They're a good team that's in the thick of things, and they still have a bunch of games in hand. They're going to make it.

I'm not going to be surprised if Toronto makes it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they missed either. They're going to have to play their ass off to make it.