It’s Thursday morning, and since it’s a game day I’ll keep this short.
After dropping three straight games, it looks like Ron Wilson has mashed up the Leafs‘ lines and created somewhat of a puzzling layout. During practice on Wednesday, things looked something like this up front: Lombardi-Bozak-Kessel, MacArthur-Grabovski-Kulemin, Lupul-Connolly-Kadri, and Brown-Steckel-Crabb. Good to see Kadri re-enter the lineup after sitting against the Senators, I thought some of his creativity with the puck probably could have helped in the third.
It’s no real surprise that a head coach would want to shift some things around on a losing streak, but moving Lupul from the top line had a lot of fans confused. It’s a tough situation given the Leafs have only scored four goals in three losses, with only one point each from Kessel and Lupul, and the duo has been on the ice for six against in that span.
Not to worry too much, though. The whole thing could look entirely different by the first intermission of tonight’s game against the Wild.
On the back end, Phaneuf has been paired with Schenn, causing many to question whether Carl Gunnarsson has wronged Wilson in some way unknown to us, since he’s looked to be the ideal fit to fill that spot with Dion in the past. Again, one rotten goal and things could move around quickly. Aulie was the odd man out with Komisarek slotting back beside Gunnarsson.
Wilson also has not named a starter between the pipes, so you’ll have to keep your eye on twitter this morning to see who gets the nod.
Links are after the jump.
The unbearable lightness of being a bubble team (Danny Gray at The Leafs Nation)
Phaneuf can’t fight in that situation (Cam Charron at The Leafs Nation)
Top 25 under 25 – #14 Brad Ross (Pension Plan Puppets)
Armstrong turns to Crosby, others for concussion advice (James Mirtle at the Globe and Mail)
Dusting off the old site (Jon S returns to Yakov Mironov – bookmark it)
Leafs-Wild game preview (The Star)
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Enjoy the links, and feel free to throw some more in the comments section.
Email ryanfancey@gmail.com and follow on twitter @rfancey3
