For the first time this season, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner were split up in a game, a situational move that resulted in a win for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
RALEIGH — When the Toronto Maple Leafs were in the midst of a season-high four-game losing streak, the team tinkered with their lineup. But the one thing that remained constant was star forwards Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner continued to skate on a line together.
That changed on Sunday when head coach Sheldon Keefe split them up in the second period and kept them there. The Maple Leafs were down 1-0 to the Carolina Hurricanes at the time of the switch. Toronto went on to defeat them 3-1 at PNC Arena.
“It was more a reflection about how I felt about the game more than how I felt about the lines, necessarily,” Keefe explained. “We were fine but not a lot of things were happening for us offensively that I thought changing up the lines a bit will get the guys’ attention, change the chemistry and it might spark something.
“At the same time it might throw the opposition off a little bit, they had a game plan going in.”
The Maple Leafs had defeated the Boston Bruins one night earlier at home while the Hurricanes had the day off. Carolina dominated the possession battle in the opening period with a 5-on-5 expected goals-for percentage of 77.
Still, Toronto get kept the game within reach and were eventually rewarded for their patience.
After the Leafs tied the game late in the second period with Calle Jarnkrok’s third tally of the season, Marner found new linemate John Tavares in front of the net for the eventual game-winning goal midway through the third period.
Marner is no stranger to playing with Tavares. The duo skated almost exclusively together when Toronto’s captain joined the Maple Leafs in the summer of 2018. It wasn’t until Keefe took over for Babcock as head coach in November of 2019 that Marner and Matthews were paired together.
“A lot of guys are the same with their skills and creativity,” Marner said. “It doesn’t take much to kind of switch it into a different line. I thought both lines [Matthews skated with William Nylander on another line] did a great job.”
Matthews found Nylander for the insurance goal late in the third period.
Early in the 2021-22 season, Keefe split up his core-four forwards in the same way he did on Sunday, but it came during a difficult start to the year. He eventually put Matthews and Marner back together once they got things figured out. But one of the more encouraging things for the Maple Leafs in their performance on Sunday was that in the rare situation this season that they found themselves as the betting underdog, they played a different type of game to gut out a win.
“I think we just knew we had to be patient with our game,” Tavares said of the win. “There wasn’t much out there for either team.”
The Leafs are now on a three-game winning streak and beat a top team on the road for the first time this season. Perhaps, more importantly, they found another template they can follow on winning a game.
“We didn’t give up much, defensively,” Keefe said. “There were a lot of point shots, stuff coming toward the net but no real big scoring opportunity.
“Players made the decision at that point that they weren’t just going to go away, they were going to dig in and the game changed from that point on.”