Leafs make CONTROVERSIAL move... Multiple Major Updates | Toronto Maple Leafs News

We have some big news to go over today as we just got a very unfortunate update surrounding Kirill Marchenko as finally we received a bit of a timeline update. It is not what we all expected or wanted to hear. So we're going to break that down, but also discuss Jim Hiller continuing to make moves ahead of the big game against the Habs tomorrow. Once again, surrounding Gavin McKenna as he has moved him off of the power play in favor of a name that is officially or at least Reportedly, officially going to be returning tomorrow. A ton to go over today. Before we get to it, very quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. You guys can be so supportive. Let's start with the big update that drops around Kirill Marchenko. And it's quite frankly, pretty bad news here, as he says that he is still at least two weeks away from returning from his lower body injury per Darren Dreger. They could certainly use him back in the mix just to try and straighten out some of the lines. So Jim Hiller doesn't have the extra large blender out there every single night. And yesterday I was told it would be two more weeks. That doesn't help them now, and it won't help them through this very rough stretch, or at least difficult stretch they have up ahead. So Darius, not great. Two weeks away from now means he's going to be missing well over a month by the time this is done, which is unfortunate, especially when you look at the initial timeline that was supposed to go out. So Darius, what are your thoughts on this? Yeah, obviously unfortunate, and when you look at the original, well, the original timeline was a couple guys that saw him in an airport in Calgary when he was flying home with the injury, and he said, I'll be back in two weeks. So, obviously, a player is going to say that, right? Like, hey, I'll be back as soon as possible, but looks like he's going to be out like a month at this point. Like we've all talked about, huge part of this team, huge, huge part and a great trade by John Shyka over a point per game player so far this season. So this is a huge loss for them and they're continuing to feel it because he's such a dynamic option for them, right? And he's so underrated defensively too. So they need him back and hopefully, you know, don't rush him back. Like you want him to be 100% so he can produce for you the rest of the way this season. But that's not the greatest injury update. But Nick, we did get a pretty good injury update today as well, because John Tavares will be returning to the lineup tomorrow. But then with him returning to the lineup, he is taking some, he's taking an interesting spot five on five. We can get into that. And he's taking Gavin McKenna off the first power play unit, which we'll get into. But all of that to say, Kirill Marchenko, they need him back in the lineup. Yeah, obviously. The unfortunate part is they have, like I mentioned, Christmas break is coming up in a month and a little bit, and there's obviously a little bit of a break there, but I have to hope we get them back ahead of December. I'm just worried this is going to be a continuously lingering problem, in which case I just want to see this team at full health, which they're almost at now. Tanehill's back, and we finally saw John Tavares, like you just mentioned, Derek, in a regular Leafs sweater. He's taking part in a regular jersey, and Jim Hiller did say that a return looks likely. We still have to talk about it, but it sure looks like it, which means that all signs, and he is, they're not going to confirm, Playing tomorrow against the Montreal Canadiens, which is a pretty good game for him to return from. Obviously, the Canadiens are very hot right now. They did choke that generational loss to the Jets when they won yesterday. Darius, this is very big for multiple reasons. Now, we'll dive into a ton of different things here, but I want to start with the power play because that's probably the most important thing. You can see here, he is taking Gavin McKenna's place on the Leafs' number one power play unit. So it's Roslevic, Matthews, Nylander, Radish, and Tavares. And McKenna has rejoined power play two. And we have some comments from McKenna I want to dive into in a second as well. But I just want to get your thoughts on this first. What are your thoughts on this? Gavin McKenna, he's now back off of power play one, which... I mean, you look at the numbers, like, Tavares is a very good special teams guy, and the special teams for the Leafs are starting to kind of even out now to where they probably are. They're top five almost in both, six in power play, fourth in PK. And now Gavin McKenna is officially back off of the power play. Yeah. Top five, top five in both categories in the league, in the league is not bad. Right. And obviously the power plays right there hovering around there. But when talking about the power play, Gavin McKenna has been really good at making the most of his minutes on power play one, and now they're moving him off. And I, I guess it makes sense from a veteran standpoint for the coach that wants a guy that he definitely trusts in there. I guess I get it, but I'm not necessarily like happy about it. I guess as a fan, like, you know, Gavin McKenna has been playing well, and I would like to see him still in that power play unit. He gets pushed even further down because, you know, Rozovic and even Marchenko's not here right now. Rozovic is back on the top unit. And he's also back from injury because he was dealing with something the last couple of days and he took a maintenance day yesterday. But, you know, he's back on the ice this morning as well. So that's good news. Like you mentioned, I mean, they have the blend route, right? They continue to have the blend route. They're trying to get back to something that, you know, they tried earlier this season. I don't know if I necessarily loved it. And I thought that they were getting results with McKenna. So it's an interesting move. We'll see how it plays out. You have to score on your opportunities on the power play against Montreal. You mentioned, obviously, the generational loss the other night against Winnipeg. That was crazy. They're back on track. Big win last night against Utah, and they've been rolling as of late. And Fowler's looked really good, right? So you have to make the most of these opportunities. And I just think that McKenna's been rolling. But I do like his answers, and we can kind of get to those now, too. And he said, you know, basically he's 18 and he understands it. I just feel like the guy has a good mindset, right? Like, I feel like everyone in the media, whether it's in Toronto or not, is trying to pick at this kid because it's, like, easy to do that because he's, like, the young kid on the team. But I just like his mindset and everything that he says, right? You know, he's saying like, obviously, John Tavares is a veteran in this league. Of course, he's going to take that spot, right? And who knows how he actually feels behind the scenes, but at the same time, like he is 18, right? So I do like his mindset so far. He strikes me as a guy who does feel comfortable, does know how good he is, and that's not going to change what he's going to do out there, right? He's just going to try and make the most of his opportunities out there. So I don't know exactly what he's going to do on that third line, the way it's currently constructed. I feel like that could be. An interesting dynamic, maybe with Dakota Joshua winning the board battles, and that might free up Gavin McKenna to do a little bit more in the middle, but we'll see how that plays out tomorrow. Obviously, another storyline is... You mentioned how good he's been. What his minutes are going to look like now that John Tavares is back. His minutes have been pretty steady as of late, which is very impressive. Also, Roslovic being back is huge. We didn't know what exactly was going on. He's been the Leafs' second or third best player at over a point a game. Eight goals, 10 assists in 18 games. The team all of a sudden looks really good now with Tavares back. You're obviously missing Marchenko. Even just having Tavares back helps round out the team, especially with Dakota Joshua as well. So now you have Cowan, Matthews, Roslovic, Tavares, Paul, Nylander. And keep in mind, Tavares is on the wing right now. He's still going to take some face-offs, but that's to give him a bit of a break, I guess. You have Joshua, Sissons, McKenna. I kind of hate that third line. I don't really know what exactly it is. No one on that line is a primary, like, scorer. I mean, I guess McKenna can hopefully try to do that. And you have the great fourth line, in theory, of Duchene, Bluegrim, McEwen, with Vinny Letari getting the nod out. He's the one who gets pushed out. The team looks good. The one thing they're missing, I think, again, is a Kirill Marchenko or a top six forward that could help push down everybody to get the third line in a better spot to where maybe Nick Paul is on the third line, at least some sort of production there. But these are the lines going forward. The defense remains the same. And there's, it's not bad. Like, it's not a bad forward group, but it can't help but look at that third line and wonder what exactly it's doing. Though, Dakota Joshua's played well. Now he's paired with McKenna and Sissons. It's an interesting line. I don't know exactly what it'll bring, Yeah, and kind of like I was talking about before, I wonder if, you know, he's on the boards, he's doing his thing because he has looked good in that role so far this season and kind of comfortable. So maybe he can, maybe it'll work out and he'll free up McKenna to do a little bit more. It also pushes Letari out of the lineup. John Tavares coming back. One thing, I don't want to, I don't know if I want to read into it too much. Maybe it's Nick Paul playing so well at center the last couple of games, and maybe they have data on this that maybe he should be playing center over Tavares and maybe to put them together. But maybe it has to do with Tavares' leg still, right? Because he injured his leg. Maybe it has something to do with, hey, we don't want you skating as much, so you're not going to play center. We'll play you on the wing. Or maybe it's just time to try Tavares on the wing. People have been talking about that for years at this point, and he hasn't necessarily slowed down. He's never been the fastest player, but in terms of like his production and how he is at the center position, like he hasn't really slowed down yet. So I think that that's interesting. Maybe they just want to try that line together and see what that looks like. I think it could be dynamic, too, with Paul in the middle. So that'll be interesting. But I could see a world where McKenna finds success the way that that third line is set up. I just didn't like it last week when Letari was there. Like, I didn't understand what that line did, right? Like they were just kind of out there for free skate. So. This one looks a little bit better. We'll see how it plays out. But again, I expect the blender to come out. And that's something that I don't necessarily love. I don't know how you guys feel about it. Let us know in the comments. Nobody's really like building chemistry this year. And I know there's injuries. You can't control that, of course. But like period to period and maybe not the first period, but like by the end of the game, most games, they are trying something completely different. So I feel like it's really hard for a lot of these guys to continue to build chemistry. And a huge talking point we had earlier in the season was. You know, this team needs to come together. There's so much turnover, right? And I find that it's going to be hard to do that if they keep plugging guys in and out at different spots. So maybe they're trying to do that with power play one. I like the way McKenna looked on power play one, but, you know, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if you're not getting your opportunities on power play one. Change. A minute in, change. Get the second unit out. Try something different. We'll see how that works out, but we all know that usually doesn't happen. So we'll see how it plays out. I don't necessarily love some of the moves from Jim Hiller this year, but... I still have my faith in the team. And I think that the Atlantic is so tight that the Leafs battling through this adversity so early, going on road trips, dealing with the injuries, you would have to imagine that that's going to come for other teams too. So if they can battle through this, and I think they've been doing a pretty good job doing that and not getting blown out and they're in every game, maybe that could bode well for them later on in the season. And speaking of adversity, yeah, you can see here, no insight on the goaltending situation. We hope it's Anthony Stolarz. I think we assume it's probably Anthony Stolarz. Dobravske had a great game, so maybe that's what's making this a little bit more confusing. We'll keep you up to date on that tomorrow. Thank you guys for watching.