With John Tavares out, the Leafs presented one set of lines at practice and used a slightly different tactic in the first game against the Boston Bruins.
The nominal lines:
Andreas Johnsson - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Ilya Mikheyev - Alexander Kerfoot - Mitchell Marner
Trevor Moore - Jason Spezza - Kasperi Kapanen
Dmytro Timashov - Nick Shore - Frederik Gauthier
The plan:
Babcock said Leafs settled on lines strategy v Bruins two days ago
Matthews-Nylander - Offensive zone
Matthews-Marner - Match-up situation v Bergeron
4th line - Match-up v Bergeron in D-zone
"I wasn't going to explain all that to ya (smiles) would've been a waste of time"— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) October 20, 2019The ice time:
Toronto ice time vs Boston, October 19
In case you’ve forgotten, the Leafs had no power plays, but there were almost four minutes of three-on-three overtime and three Boston power plays, only one of which was cut short with a goal.