Regardless of the result in this one, I thought it was disappointing to abandon the experiment after basically 1.5 games. We know this team is going to make the playoffs, where they are going to play an elite team in the first round no matter what happens for the rest of the regular season. These types of games present opportunities to play around with the lineup and try out different combinations, collect some data, and better understand how to move the pieces around should anything unforeseen transpire in the playoffs (with this franchise, it usually does).
It’s fine to believe these are the optimal line combos, but if we’re honest, the Leafs haven’t tried out all that many while fully healthy in order to come to that conclusion unequivocally (it may well prove to be the best configuration, but I’d argue we don’t know that yet).