Shorthanded Maple Leafs debut new Toronto St. Pats jerseys against Carolina

The Toronto Maple Leafs will host the Carolina Hurricanes for the third consecutive year on their St. Patrick’s Day game. However, this year, the Maple Leafs are debuting a brand-new Toronto St. Pats jersey after revealing it to everyone earlier in the week.

Unfortunately, Toronto will be without two regulars tonight when they debut the new jerseys. Mitch Marner, who will miss his third straight game with a mild high-ankle sprain, and Calle Jarnkrok, who left Thursday night’s game with an injury, is now listed as week-to-week with a hand injury.

With another injury to the lineup, Sheldon Keefe and his coaching staff have tinkered with the lines for a third consecutive game while keeping the defence pairings the same.

After a terrific showing on the top line, following a dreadful performance the game prior, Tyler Bertuzzi has earned another look beside Auston Matthews with Pontus Holmberg on the other wing. Those three played in limited action against the Flyers after Jarnkrok left the game, and they looked fine. Definitely interested in a more extended look.

According to Moneypuck.com, that trio outscored the opposition 1-0, won the shot attempt battle 7-5, tied them in shots 2-2, and generated an xGF% of 55.2% in just 4:49 of ice-time at five-on-five.

With that trio getting another look and Marner and Jarnkrok sidelined with an injury, Keefe has shuffled his middle six, putting Max Domi back in the middle of the ice to play alongside Bobby McMann and William Nylander and demoting John Tavares to the third line to center a line with the two youngsters, Matthew Knies and Nick Robertson, which looks like an interesting line on paper.

Tyler Bertuzzi – Auston Matthews – Pontus Holmberg

Bobby McMann – Max Domi – William Nylander

Matthew Knies – John Tavares – Nick Robertson

Connor Dewar – David Kampf – Noah Gregor

TJ Brodie – Jake McCabe

Morgan Rielly – Ilya Lyubushkin

Joel Edmundson – Timothy Liljegren

One lineup note: Along with Mitch Marner missing his third consecutive game with an injury, defenceman Simon Benoit, who had been a mainstay on the blue line prior to the trade deadline alongside Jake McCabe, is projected to be a healthy scratch for a third straight time with the new acquisition of Joel Edmundson. It’s unknown when Benoit will slide back into the lineup at this point, but with a back-to-back next week against Philadelphia and Washington, there’s a chance he gets in to one of those contests.

Andrei Svechnikov – Sebastian Aho – Jesper Fast

Jake Guentzel – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Martin Necas

Jordan Martinook – Jordan Staal – Seth Jarvis

Stefan Noesen – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Brendan Lemieux

Jaccob Slavin – Brent Burns

Brady Skjei – Brett Pesce

Dmitry Orlov – Jalen Chatfield

Ilya Samsonov (TOR) vs Pytor Kochetkov (CAR)

Earlier today at the Maple Leafs’ morning skate, there was a little injury scare to Ilya Samsonov. It was reported he left the ice early after going down awkwardly, but post-practice, Sheldon Keefe said he was fine and is expected to play tonight.

Sportsnet, 7:00 pm ET/4:00 pm PT

 

(Stats from hockey-reference.com)

(Projected lineups from dailyfaceoff.com)