Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe wanted a stronger fourth line after consecutive years of playoff disappointment. He appears to have found it.
Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe wanted a stronger fourth line after consecutive years of playoff disappointment. He appears to have found it.
BOSTON — From an even-strength perspective, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe deployed his fourth line more than any of his others against the best team in the NHL on Thursday...And it wasn’t an accident.
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Forwards Zach Aston Reese, David Kampf and Sam Lafferty were in the starting lineup. They also started the second and third periods as the Maple Leafs tested them against Boston's trio of AJ Greer, Tomas Nosek and Oskar Steen.
The results were reflected both in the physicality as well as the scoreboard.
The Bruins were outshooting the Maple Leafs 6-0 before Sam Lafferty delivered a hard hit on Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk.
The hit drew a fight with Greer, who was also assessed a two-minute minor and 10-minute misconduct for starting the brawl.
In the second period, the line connected offensively after Lafferty shot out with a burst of speed to dish a puck to Aston-Reese, who found Lafferty in front of the Bruins' net for the game's opening goal at 11:32 of the second period.
The goal came at a time when scoring was at a high premium. Ilya Samsonov was strong again for the Maple Leafs as was Boston's Jeremy Swayman. Both goalies made 31 saves. Neither goaltender had given an inch until Lafferty broke the game open.
The Maple Leafs fell 2-1 in overtime on Thursday, But with the single point and the Tampa Bay Lightning's 6-1 loss to the New York Islanders, Toronto clinched home-ice advantage for their first-round series with Tampa.
While Aston-Reese and Kampf had established chemistry over the last stretch of games, Lafferty appeared to still be finding his way. Acquired in a deal from Chicago Blackhawks that also saw Jack McCabe land in Toronto, Lafferty had bounced around the lineup as injuries to another pair of trade acquisitions — Ryan O'Reilly and Noel Acciari — began to pile up.
From second-line center to fourth-line winger, Lafferty struggled to find a real groove until settling in with Aston-Reese and Kampf over the last four games.
"We had moved him around a lot and I don't think that helped him," Keefe said of Lafferty before the game. "I think getting him in a solid spot and being very clear about what his role is on the line. Since we've done that with Kampf and Aston-Reese, he's really taken off."
During training camp in September, Keefe admitted he was looking for a new look on the fourth line and it was clear why. They were in need of some improvement after the previous looks had failed against the Montreal Canadiens in 2021 and the Lightning in 2022.
It wasn't a playoff game, but the Maple Leafs were clearly using the best team in the league to test the mettle of their current fourth-line look. Just to see if the last few games the trio had produced were real.
Is it what Keefe he envisioned this time around?
"Absolutely," he said. "They earn the confidence of the coach that when they are out there, they're either going to do good things or not allow anything bad to happen. They've really come together over the last few games and you can see that momentum continuing."
Toronto's actual shortcomings came in their inability to score. Toronto's top offensive weapons were held off the scoresheet. William Nylander didn't look particularly great, especially on a loaded second line with John Tavares and Mitch Marner.
But Ryan O'Reilly showed a lot of promise in his first game back from a broken finger, winning puck battles and successfully connecting on clearing attempts or small passes to change the direction of play.
With the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division officially nailed down, the Maple Leafs are sure to experiment with different looks. The top-nine will surely be moved around. But the fourth line is as sure a lock as any to stick for Game 1 of the playoffs.
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