Maple Leafs Coach Craig Berube Confirms Line Combinations Against Panthers

Tonight will mark the first time that the Leafs and Panthers will have met this season and it should provide fireworks as both clubs have been playing great hockey to start the season.

As expected, Anthony Stolarz earned the start against his former team and he'll be going toe-to-toe with his former running mate, Sergei Bobrovsky.

Stolarz has certainly outplayed Bobrovsky this season, with Stolarz posting a 7-3-2 record with a 2.18 GAA, and a .927 SV% compared to Bobrovsky's 3.19 GAA and .885 SV%

As for the lines, the Maple Leafs didn't deviate too much from their victory against Utah on Sunday.

Bobby McMann remained on the top line with John Tavares and Mitch Marner during Wednesday's line rushes. Pontus Holmberg was centering William Nylander and Nicholas Robertson, and Alex Nylander and Nikita Grebenkin were Fraser Minten's wingers to round out the top-9.

Of course, the big news coming out of practice was that Leafs captain Auston Matthews would not be suiting up. While he did practice a little bit, he's not quite ready to make a return tonight. However, there is a strong chance that we see him on Saturday night against Tampa Bay.

With Matthews remaining on the sidelines, that meant the power play looked a little different than usual.

Alex Nylander is the big winner of the day, as the top PP unit was comprised of both Nylander brothers, Tavares, Marner, and Morgan Rielly, while the second unit had Robertson, Minten, McMann, and a 2 defensemen set in Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Timmins.

The Maple Leafs will be looking to extend their winning streak to 5 games tonight and a win would also pad their division lead to 5 points with 1 game in hand heading into the American Thanksgiving weekend.