Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube gave his thoughts on sticking William Nylander on the first line and how things might possibly look going forward.

During Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, head coach Craig Berube decided to switch things up by adding William Nylander to the first line and switched Matthew Knies to the left on the second line.

It paid off for the team as the line looked revitalized, and the addition of Nylander wasn’t just to add offense to his struggling top line, but wanted to add some size into his second line, something he elaborated on further:

“I thought in my head that if I could get Tavares with Knies and Pacioretty out there at times against the Thompson line, it’s a big line, heavy line.

So that was my thought a little bit and not so much use of Matthews against [them] the rest of the game, we were down.

So, wanted to kind of loosen those guys up a little bit and give them some different looks. That was kind of like my thought process on it and it worked out.”

 

Craig Berube’s Gamble Might Lead To A Jackpot

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It’s not unusual for Craig Berube to make differences to his lineup, but he normally reserves such big changes for the pre-game lines. It was a gamble given how good Nylander has been with John Tavares and Max Pacioretty, but in times of desperation, changes need to be made.

Since swapping Nylander and Knies, it was a complete turnaround that effectively turned the tide for the Maple Leafs. Having three big-bodied and aggressive forwards hounding Buffalo’s top line, it allowed Toronto to fight their way back to a victory.

The team’s top two lines effectively shut down Buffalo’s offense while generating a large amount of scoring chances. Tavares/Knies/Pacioretty outshot the opposition 8-0 on the ice and had a blistering 96% expected goal share according to Natural Stat Trick.

If Toronto wants to head into Dallas with as much strength as possible, especially against a bigger Stars team, they should look to keep things as they were in Buffalo.

It was a small sample size sure, and it will be hard to keep them together if they are unable to keep Dallas’ offense quiet, then they should probably spread out their stars a bit more.

But if Toronto finds themselves in a hole, look for Berube to go back to the drawing board and find a way to spark his lineup once again.