News and Notes: Matthews and Marner re-united, Liljegren out, Anderson sent down

After today’s practice we have some news to report about shuffles in the roster. A thank you goes to The Hockey News’ David Alter for the news tweets.

The Leafs and Sheldon Keefe have decided to change things up, despite winning 8 of their last 9 games.

Here are the new forward lines from the practice:

The decision to break up @Auston Matthews and @William Nylander is certainly an interesting one. Our own Nick Richard had what I think is the perfect take on this:

Keefe also had this to say about the Nylander – Matthews – Kase line that he used in Buffalo (once again from David Alter):

Other changes include @Wayne Simmonds returning to the lineup after @Kirill Seymonov got to play against Buffalo. That shuffle is most likely some load management for the aging winger who likes to play a physical game. We’re also seeing @Nick Ritchie on the top line again, which is interesting considering his lack of production. But, I thought he looked good against Buffalo so I’m hopeful that he can continue that momentum and bury something with the Leafs’ starts. Honestly, though, I’m not sure his lack of speed really fits there.

We continue to see @David Kampf locked into the 3C role, and at this point there’s no reason to change it. He’s played well there, his linemates have generally looked good with him, and it’s ideal to shelter the ice time for veterans Spezza and Simmonds so they can have a big impact in small doses over the course of the entire season.

We also learned in practice that @Timothy Liljegren will be sitting out, as Keefe chooses to keep the parts moving so that everyone is fresh. The defense will revert back to how it was at the start of the season, before Liljegren’s break-in to the roster at the expense of @Justin Holl:

Also happening today was the re-assignment of @Joey Anderson to the minors after practice. As the forward group is fully healthy barring the long-term injury to @Ilya Mikheyev, he was likely just there as insurance in case someone had an injury in practice.

In other Joes, I mean news, @Joseph Woll still remains with the team after his win on Saturday night. He didn’t look perfect, but it’d be hard to make a determination of whether he’s NHL ready based on one game. I would expect that he would stay with the roster for another look.

However, one could certainly argue that @Erik Kallgren deserves his own shot after a shaky, albeit expectedly shaky, performance from Woll. Källgren has been great with the Marlies, winning three straight and showing that he probably could be in the big league too.

That’s a wrap for today’s news and notes; stay tuned to see if any of these changes stick for Toronto’s game tomorrow against Nashville, at 7pm.