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TORONTO — It's been 18 months since the Maple Leafs played a regular-season game against a team from outside of Canada. That streak halts today.
And how. Not since March 2020, right before the NHL hit pause amid the COVID-19 pandemic, has the Leafs’ regular-season slate felt more normal. Toronto binged on all Canadian-based teams in last season’s 56-game run, followed by a seven-game playoff series against Montreal. Then the Leafs opened this regular season with one tilt against the Canadiens and two against Ottawa.
The NHL’s reigning Rocket Richard Trophy winner will now slide onto the Leafs’ top line with Nick Ritchie and Mitch Marner, causing a trickle-down effect of other changes. John Tavares will now be flanked by Michael Bunting and William Nylander, Alex Kerfoot moves from centre to wing on the third line with David Kampf and Ondrej Kase, and Pierre Engvall joins the fourth line with Jason Spezza and Wayne Simmonds.
It’s clear that line – previously centred by Tavares – has yet to pop, and Matthews should be the catalyst it needs. “When he gets the puck, very often on the next play the puck is going to one of our sticks,” Keefe said. “That’s an underrated but extremely important piece of playing with good players. If the puck comes to your stick and the play dies and goes to the opposition, that's not a very good quality to have. He’s consistently getting [the puck] to good spots, and I think there's great potential for that line to be great and Nick's got great potential there.
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