Nylander demoted to bottom six in Leafs' latest lineup shuffle
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
With the Toronto Maple Leafs on the brink of elimination against the Boston Bruins, head coach Mike Babcock is pulling out all the stops for his team to live to see another day. That includes splitting up Auston Matthews and William Nylander, demoting the latter to the bottom six.
Here's a look at their lines during Saturday's morning skate, according to TSN's Mark Masters:
Leafs lines at morning skate
- Mark Masters (@markhmasters) April 21, 2018
Hyman-Matthews-Brown
Marleau-Kadri-Marner
JvR-Bozak-Kapanen
Johnsson-Plekanec-Nylander
Komarov on the ice but not in rushes
It can be debated as to whether an Andreas Johnsson-Tomas Plekanec-Nylander trio would actually serve as the team's third or fourth line, as many beat writers following the team have the latter two groups swapped. Nonetheless, it's quite a dramatic shakeup, which Babcock confirmed was legitimate after practice.
Babcock confirmed that Matthews & Nylander will start on separate lines tonight:
- Mark Masters (@markhmasters) April 21, 2018
"It wasn't going, we have to change something " the bottom line, we're not scoring enough & we need to score"
Babcock was not pleased with Matthews' and Nylander's performances following a Game 4 in which they failed to generate much offense, so this lineup shuffle isn't all that surprising.
Related: Babcock expected Matthews, Nylander to dominate Bergeron-less Bruins
As for Toronto's newly-formed top line, Matthews is no stranger to being flanked by Zach Hyman and Connor Brown. In nearly 500 minutes together at 5-on-5 throughout the past two regular seasons, this threesome has generated 49.1 percent of the shot attempts, but 62.2 percent of the goals scored while on the ice together, per Corsica.
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