The Toronto Maple Leafs hit the ice for the first time at practice earlier today without their captain John Tavares. Tavares of course will likely miss at least two weeks with a broken finger.It leaves a big hole in the leafs' lineup and head coach Mike Babcock decided to fill it with Alexander Kerfoot. Babcock explained to the media that it took a full day of brainstorming with assistants Dave Hakstol and Paul McFarland to come up with the lines. «We spent the full day [Thursday] on it,» admitted Babcock. «Of course I got everybody's input. They all sent it to me and everyone had a different theory. And then we walked through all the options and why. Nothing is set in stone. We did the pre-scout on Boston, you say, ‘Okay, what are we going to do, how's it going to go?' and try to give yourself the best opportunity. This is [the lineup] for warmups for sure.»
In case you missed it, here's a look at the new lines:Johnsson-Matthews-Nylander
Mikheyev-Kerfoot-Marner
Moore-Spezza-Kapanen
Timashov-Shore-Gauthier
