Maple Leafs Make Change With Middle-Six Forwards In Preparation For Golden Knights Clash In Vegas

The Toronto Maple Leafs are gearing up for their first game on the road this season, meeting the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night. At morning skate at T-Mobile Arena, the Maple Leafs revealed their projected lineup to kick off this road trip.

Toronto flies into Nevada with a 2-2-0 record, while Vegas owns a 3-1-0 record across the first four games of the season.

The forward group will see a minor change with the middle six. 

The last game for the Leafs was a 5-4 dramatic overtime win against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday. In that contest, there were several lines that were shuffled, including the moment Gavin McKenna scored his first NHL goal, assisted by Auston Matthews and Jack Roslovic. Typically, he's slotted on the left wing of John Tavares and William Nylander.

In the third period, the rookie dropped to the third line with Nick Paul and Colton Sissons. As a result, Easton Cowan got a shot with Tavares, with Kirill Marchenko getting a look on that line too. That left Nylander with Matthews and Roslovic, leaving head coach Jim Hiller with plenty of options to deploy his squad.

Those changes from Tuesday make a small feature in Toronto's projected lineup for it's contest against Vegas.

McKenna was skating on the third line with Paul and Sissons, with Cowan up on the second line as the left winger alongside Tavares and Nylander.

Hiller said after morning skate that he really liked the way the team finished the game against Nashville, and that would include where Cowan and McKenna were playing in the lineup.

"They finished that. Gavin finished with those guys. We liked how we finished the game, so it's just kind of easy for us," he said. "It was a good night in the end, so why change it?"

Cowan had a hot start to the season, scoring a goal and three points in his first pair of games. Hiller admitted that he probably hasn't played him as much as he deserves, so he's interested to see how he'll perform with more responsibility with Tavares and Nylander on his line.

"I thought he started really strong, and then I probably haven't played him as much," Hiller said. "He probably probably deserved a little bit more ice time. So, we'll give him another crack. He'll get a little more tonight, probably with (Tavares) and (Nylander). So, we'll see. We'll see where he takes it."

Toronto's fourth line and the first line remain the usual trio, and the defense pairs are the same, too.

In terms of goaltending, Anthony Stolarz was the Maple Leafs' starter against the Predators. Before that game, when Hiller said that he'd be the starting goaltender, he said that they had a goaltending rotation plan.

Based on morning skate, Sergei Bobrovsky is projected to start for the Maple Leafs against the Golden Knights. The veteran netminder is still looking to earn his first win for Toronto, having lost his first two games and averaging an .887 save percentage and a 3.06 goals-against average.

Bobrovsky is 8-3-0 against Vegas in his career, averaging a .913 SP and a 2.40 GAA across those 11 outings.

For special teams, Toronto's power-play formation and layout is the same as it was against the Predators.

Regarding the Golden Knights, they had their morning skate and laid out their lineup against the Maple Leafs.

Victor Olofsson was injured in Vegas' last game on Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken, and won't be in the lineup against Toronto. So Raphael Lavoie is making his season debut for the Knights in Olofsson's place.

In the crease, Adin Hill gets his second start of the season. He earned a win in his first start in a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, where he posted a .900 save percentage, stopping 18 of 20 shots on goal.

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