Pacioretty had been scratched for the last two Maple Leafs games.
Pacioretty had been scratched for the last two Maple Leafs games.
Max Pacioretty will return to the Toronto Maple Leafs' lineup on Monday when the team hosts the Tampa Bay Lightning at Scotiabank Arena.
The 35-year-old had been a healthy scratch for the last two games, marking the first time in his NHL career that he found himself in this position.
So why is now the right time to put the forward back in?
"I don't know if it was a timed thing. The team was playing pretty well. We obviously didn't win the last game, so I'm just making a lineup change," said Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube. "We've got back-to-back games here, so I have an opportunity to get fresh guys in there and keep guys fresh for the next game."
Ryan Reaves will sit out in place of Pacioretty. It's not immediately clear what the lines will look like, as the team didn’t run them during the morning skate. However, it was evident that Pacioretty was being factored in when he took reps on the second power-play unit.
Pacioretty spent the first three games skating alongside John Tavares and Nick Robertson (except for one game when Tavares was out sick and Pontus Holmberg played in the middle). After his second benching, Pacioretty spoke about his time off the ice and didn’t hide his frustration at not playing.
"I'm dealing with it the best I can. Just working," Pacioretty said on Saturday. "I mean, I'm at this stage of my career for a reason. Would I rather be playing? Of course, anyone would rather be playing."
The Maple Leafs are coming off a 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday night, dropping their record to 3-2-0 for the season. The game against the Lightning marks just their second matchup against a divisional opponent. Toronto lost 1-0 to the Montreal Canadiens in the season opener.
Anthony Stolarz will make his fifth straight start in Toronto's net.
The Lightning are 3-1-0 this season, with Nikita Kucherov leading the NHL in goals scored (7) heading into Monday's game.
Tampa's lines can be found on THN's lineup page.
Where to watch
In Canada, Amazon will stream its first-ever Maple Leafs game as part of its new Canadian national package with the NHL. In the United States, the game will stream on Bally Sports in the Tampa region and on Fubo Sports/NHL Network for the rest of the country.
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