Matthews and Marner given chance to reignite their spark in lines shuffle

Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe has gone back to the drawing board and placed Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner on the same line again, to see if the pair can rediscover their on-ice relationship from last season.

On the latest episode of 'In the Mentions', Omar salutes John Tavares' leadership after his 100th goal in blue and white, makes the case for Ondrej Kase and gives the hilarious goal of the year award to David Kampf.

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Video Transcript

- What I'm interested to see is what is Sheldon Keefe going to do with the lines. We saw last Saturday's game where the line blunder went out a little bit. Different players were playing with players that they weren't necessarily used to, but, today, things were a little different. We look at the defense pairings that was kind of the same. You still have Morgan Rielly with T.J. Brodie, which has been solid.

And, just a little side, note T.J. Brodie is back to his diving, swinging stick defense style, which is great. We have Rasmus Sandin, who is back in the lineup after missing a game. Justin Holl and Jake Muzzin seem to be back to normal. And then, as far as goaltending goes, Jack Campbell still Jack Campbell. And then Joseph Woll, 2016 draft pick who actually got his first win over the weekend, and everyone was happy about it, including his mom.

She had a really, really great, really great reaction there. And the thing is, you know, it's great to see, actually, a goaltending prospect legitimately get a run in, get a run at the net with Petr Mrazek out. Now, as far as the forwards go, that was great as well. You have Auston Matthews with William Nylander and Ondrej Kase, you still have John Tavares-- Wait, wait.

OK, so, so the lines are different. OK, so Nick Ritchie's with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. I guess we-- have we-- did I miss something? You know, Ritchie, Matthews, and Marner was one of the first lines that Sheldon Keefe wanted to try, and the kind of hey, let's rejuvenate the Zach Hyman-ness of this line. And, at first, it just wasn't working. It seemed like Matthews and Marner were really trying to force things and there wasn't so much comfort. So when switching the lines, putting Marner back with Tavares and putting Nylander with Matthews, that didn't necessarily seem to work out as well either.

I mean, at first it was great, but now, you'll only kind of see Matthews and Nylander connect on the power play, not so much on five on five. So, maybe, it makes sense for Matthews and Marner to kind of get an opportunity to reunite, reignite their spark. You know, they did have a lot of success last year. And for Nick Ritchie, it seems like the organization is really trying to give him an opportunity to produce in some way. Kerfoot on the line, on the left of Tavares, that made a lot of sense. He's been using his speed a lot, and really driving the pace, and driving the net.

And then, of course, the only downside is that my boy Michael Bunting is now on the fourth line. That's going to be difficult to see, but, you know, whatever works and whatever helps winning. And, I think, when it comes to this type of situation, it's not only about trying to get the big guys going, but it's also about spreading out the wealth and spreading out the depth. And what we saw in Saturday's game with both Bunting, but with Bunting getting a goal, I think death is really important in the season like this.