The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Flyers on Thursday night in Philadelphia after taking a four-day break.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were without Mitch Marner for the second straight game due to a high-ankle strain.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe reportedly did not appreciate William Nylander’s appearance beside Matthews in the previous game against the Montreal Canadiens, according to reports prior to that game.
Prior to the Philadelphia Flyers game on Thursday night, Keefe stated that Calle Jarnkrok would play alongside Matthews and Tyler Bertuzzi on the top line.
Given that Jarnkrok is among the forwards with the lowest percentage of primary and in-zone shot assists (11 percent), this has got to be one of the worst combos Sheldon Keefe has attempted this season (via @JFreshHockey).
However, this pairing was short-lived as on Thursday night, Calle Jarnkrok suffered a humiliating tumble into the boards, which prompted the Maple Leafs to declare him out for the week due to a hand injury.
After Jarnkrok left the game, Pontus Holmberg got a chance with Bertuzzi and Matthews. Although Holmberg has excellent defensive stats this year, he is a total liability offensively. With the exception of primary assists, he is considerably below the league average in every passing measure and among the bottom 10% of all forwards in terms of offensive chance metrics.
Neither Jarnkrok nor Holmberg are going to assist Auston Matthews on the offensive end and yes, both are much better defensively than Nylander. However, if defense is what Sheldon Keefe is seeking alongside Matthews, his role as the head coach seriously needs to be reconsidered.
To start, Sheldon Keefe has had his two worst defensive forwards Nylander and Max Domi on the same line for about a month now. Not surprisingly, these two players have been on the ice for the most goals against at five-on-five of any Maple Leafs forward over the last 30 days.
Yet, Sheldon Keefe is adding another defensive-minded forward to play alongside Auston Matthews, who has been a top 10 defensive forward this season. So as it stands, the Maple Leafs have their two best defensive forwards playing together, while the two worst defensive forwards are playing together on the next line. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this makes zero sense.
