The Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to build on one of their most exciting wins of the season. They will host the Tampa Bay Lightning in the final matchup between the two teams in 2024-25.
The Maple Leafs were at a low point on Saturday night after surrendering three first-period goals to the Montreal Canadiens, but they stormed back and came out on top with a 7-3 victory. The Leafs have been without John Tavares for both of these games, who was injured at practice last week following a board battle, forcing them to make some lineup changes, and there were some additional changes at Monday’s morning skate.
The most glaring one was Morgan Rielly’s new defensive partner, skating alongside Jake McCabe on what looks to be their top pairing for Monday’s contest. McCabe returned to the lineup last Thursday against the New Jersey Devils and his re-entry into the lineup has shown how vastly different of a team the Leafs are with him in the lineup. The 31-year-old signed a five-year extension to remain with the Leafs and has blossomed into arguably their best two-way defenceman, eating tons of valuable minutes and playing a huge part in their new emphasis on team defence in 2024-25, while posting 13 points in 38 games so far.
It’s been somewhat of a season to forget so far for Rielly, who has 21 points in 47 games while carrying a team-worst minus-14 rating on the season. Plus-minus is a heavily debated stat of which the validity is the subject of a regular debate, but whether you take it seriously or not, it’s not something you want to be worst in, and Rielly knows this more than anybody. He’s the team’s highest-paid defenceman, so it’s a bad look on paper to have him carry the worst on-ice goal differential, and it’s gotten to a point where he’s been taken off of the top power play unit in favour of Matthew Knies and even Bobby McMann.
“I’m sure he wants to be there, but he understands,” head coach Craig Berube said recently about Rielly’s demotion. “He’s at a point in his career where he just wants to win.”
The Maple Leafs are hoping that McCabe will stabilize Rielly a little bit on the pairing and allow him to focus on his game a little more, but it comes at the expense of the McCabe/Chris Tanev pair that’s been so good for them this season.
Berube also confirmed to the media that Max Pacioretty will not play on Monday due to what they’re calling an upper-body injury. The team hasn’t confirmed what exactly the injury is, but it’s fair to assume it has to do with the puck to the ear he took against Montreal on Saturday night.
Meanwhile, Joseph Woll is projected to start again after his heroics against the Canadiens on Saturday.
The Maple Leafs will host the Lightning on Amazon Prime’s Monday night hockey at 7 pm eastern.
