Maple Leafs Coach Craig Berube Abandons Roster Experiment Amid Loss in Vancouver

Heading into Saturday's clash between the Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks in the feature game on Hockey Night in Canada, the Leafs were riding a 3-game winning streak, picking up wins over Edmonton, Calgary and Seattle along the way.

During the road trip, Leafs coach Craig Berube implemented a bit of an exciting experiment, shifting Max Domi up to play with Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies, allowing him to load up his second line with the likes of William Nylander, John Tavares and Mitch Marner.

While the Nylander-Tavares-Marner line did get on the board in Seattle on Thursday, they were held off the board in Vancouver on Saturday, and were not executing well against the Canucks, who controlled 3/4 of shifts against them, which led to Berube putting an end to the experiment.

During the 3rd period of last night's loss, the Leafs opted to reunite Mitch Marner with Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies. On the second line, John Tavares skated between Max Pacioretty and William Nylander on a line that the Leafs have used a number of times this year. Max Domi was sent back down to the 3rd line.

The move was a predictable one, as when things don't go their way during roster experiments, the Leafs often go right back to what they know, running Matthews with Marner, and Tavares with Nylander, despite clear evidence that Matthews and Marner perform better apart.

The Leafs are now on a two week break during the 4 Nations Face-Off. The only players that will remain in action will be Marner, Matthews and Nylander, who will represent Canada, USA and Sweden.

There appears to be a real possibility that Leafs GM Brad Treliving completes a trade sooner than later, so nobody really knows what the roster will look like after the break just yet. But if the team doesn't pull off a move to bring in an impact forward, we should probably get used to seeing the Matthews/Marner and Tavares/Nylander tandems.