In the Leafs‘ last game against the Senators, Travis Green hard-matched Shane Pinto’s line against Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner with more than satisfactory results from the Ottawa perspective; shot attempts were 11-7 and the score was 1-0 in those minutes in favour as the Senators, who won a 2-1 game. The Leafs have lost their two games to the Senators this season by 3-0 and 2-1 scores.
Combine it with the Leafs‘ recent struggles to score more than two against Florida and Auston Matthews’ dip in goal-scoring, and it makes for an appropriate time for the coaching staff to spread their top three forwards over separate lines in search of a spark while hopefully creating some additional matchup headaches for the opposition.