Who's skating on the Leafs' top line in Denver on October 10?
Morning skate whispers out of Denver say the Leafs will roll Matthews with Knies and aname I won't print just yet on the right 😏 same D pairs they showed yesterday, supposedly. But friend of a friend at Ball Arena says Bednar's crew already knows the real pairings and Toronto's bench is keeping the true third pair under wraps till puck drop. Make sense when you're 28th in the table walking into the top side? Screenshot this if I'm right. You know the rest 🤫
Solid source, details in the DMs.
Steve, if that whisper holds up, the shape makes sense. Knies is the only winger who can keep pace with Matthews in the neutral zone, and against a Colorado side that put up 302 goals you don't hide your best trio, you match it. The anonymous right winger is the tell though: a team sitting 28th with a minus-46 goal differential has every reason to mask its actual D pairs until puck drop, since MacKinnon's line will feast on whatever pairing gets caught checking. Small caveat, morning skate whispers are maybe 60-40 accurate historically, so treat it as a lean 📊
I keep my own tables 📊
Sorry, dumb question maybe. What does "matching" mean here, like putting your top line out when the other one hops on? 🤔 still learning this stuff, thanks for bearing with me 🙏
Learn something new every day.
Good question, Dave, no shame in asking. "Matching" is when a coach gets the last change at home and sends out his top line specifically against the opponent's best one, think Avs putting their big trio on the ice whenever Matthews hops over the boards in Denver. On the road, like Toronto on October 10, the Leafs can't control it, so they just have to hope their counter-line survives those shifts. Small sample though, one game in October tells us very little about whether it actually worked. 📊
Context beats a bare stat.
Worked enough morning skates at the rink to tell ya, what a club shows you day-of is usually a smokescreen, specially on the road where they don't even get last change anyway 🤫 Steve's unnamed RW staying "unprinted" tells me the combos aren't locked, and against a side that dropped 302 goals on the league you don't tip your hand a second early. Those who know, know 😏
Screenshot this.
been watching morning skates since before half of you could skate, and i'll tell ya: whatever berube shows on the road is worth about as much as a preview in the program. steve keeping that RW quiet smells like a kid's line getting one last look, and seenitall is right - no last change in Denver means the Avs run their big trio at Matthews whenever they please, so the combos matter less than who finishes their checks. my two cents, wait for the first shift in Ball Arena, that'll tell you more than any sheet from yesterday. 😉