The Toronto Maple Leafs have been getting some of the best hockey they’ve seen from their star players in recent memory, in terms of both production and consistency. Ironically enough, it seemed to really start when Auston Matthews went down with an injury and it forced Mitch Marner and William Nylander to step up and work overtime in his absence. Marner was paired with John Tavares and recorded 16 points in ten games while Matthews was out, while William Nylander was utilized alongside younger players such as Pontus Holmberg and Nick Robertson, scoring six goals and recording 12 points of his own in those ten games.

The Maple Leafs started the season with Matthews and Marner on a line and Tavares and Nylander running their own lines. While the latter two would eventually be paired, the moment Matthews went down, head coach Craig Berube was forced to see what he had in other combos. He found a line he liked in Tavares, Marner, and Bobby McMann, and thus, when Matthews returned, he suited up alongside Nylander so as not to break up the momentum they were getting from the Marner line. Berube said that he was reluctant to put Matthews and Marner back together just for the sake of it with how well things were going up until that point.

“The line has been very good, both offensively and defensively,” Berube said about the Tavares-Marner line ahead of Matthews’ return. “They are doing a really good job there. I felt really reluctant to just put Mitch and Matty back together.”

And yet, as soon as those combos went dry on Wednesday against the Nashville Predators, Matthews and Marner were reunited to start the third period of that game. And how did they respond? With two goals in the first three minutes of the period, of course. The Maple Leafs went on to win the game 3-2 thanks to Matthews and Marner’s heroics, especially the latter, who drew penalties and played excellent defensively while putting the team on his back.

In this game, it became obvious how Berube could best utilize the Core Four throughout the season and into the playoffs. And it simply boils down to keeping things fresh and keeping the opponent guessing.

I’ll admit that I’ve been a critic of keeping Matthews and Marner together for long periods of time, and at face value, especially if you don’t watch every game, having an issue with a 60-goal capable centre and a Selke-candidate winger who can produce at a 100-point pace playing together seems like about as much of a first-world problem as you can get. But it’s not about playing those two together so much as it is about the reluctance to split them up when teams are shutting them down. It works both ways, too, we just don’t see Matthews-Nylander together enough to reference it.

The reality is that the Maple Leafs have a luxury that most teams wish they had. Matthews and Marner are who they are, and if they’re not getting the job done, it’s not as if William Nylander, who recorded 40 goals and 96 points last season, and John Tavares, who still hasn’t seemed to have lost a step, are that much less threatening. We all know that when Matthews and Marner are on, they’re one of if not the most dynamic duo in the league not named Connor McDavid-Leon Draisitl or Nathan MacKinnon-Mikko Rantanen. But the fact of the matter is that we’ve seen that they can be shut down, especially when the ice gets smaller and the intensity is ramped up. Of course, I’m talking about the playoffs. Yet, over the past five years, the Maple Leafs haven’t pivoted off of Matthews-Marner together when they’ve been struggling for offence. It almost seems like they’ve just hoped that they’ll eventually find it.

The reality is, you can make all the arguments in the world about how Marner and Matthews shouldn’t have to be split up to find offence with the amount of money they’re making. While that’s a narrative you can hear an argument for, that doesn’t mean they’re a significant step above other teams’ best players. These are the best hockey players on the planet and in that moment, they’re paid to shut down their opponent’s best players. And, sure, Marner and Matthews should be expected to come out on the winning side of those battles every now and then, they’re not doing themselves any favours by continuing to try and fit a square peg in a round hole.

All of this is to say that Berube has four elite weapons up front and he should be keeping them fresh all the time. Matthews and Nylander aren’t foreign to each other nor are Tavares and Marner, and we saw that in the games leading up to that last-minute switch against the Predators. Reuniting Matthews and Marner worked then, and splitting them up to reunite the other pairs should work the same way, in theory. If Matthews and Marner aren’t working, split them up. If Matthews and Nylander start to slow down the same way, split them up and go back to the other pairs.

We’ll see if Berube keeps Matthews and Marner together for Friday’s game against the Washington Capitals, but it won’t matter either way. All that matters is they have the wherewithal to change things up when it’s not working.

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