Toronto Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube on William Nylander's line change (Source: Imagn)
Toronto Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube explained why he moved William Nylander to the top line during their 5-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres.
Berube moved William Nylander to the line with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner during the game. That’s $35.9 million worth of forwards together. Matthew Knies joined John Tavares and Max Pacioretty on the second line. The coach did this to match them against Tage Thompson’s strong line and give Matthews’ group more freedom.
Berube said he wanted better matchups, particularly against the Sabres’ heavy Thompson line.
"In my head, I thought I could get Tavares with Knies and Pacioretty at times against the Thompson line — a big and heavy line,” Berube said. “That was my thought: to not use Matthews against them so much for the rest of the game. We were down, so I wanted to kind of loosen those guys up a little bit and give them some different looks. That was my thought process on it, and it worked out." [8:49]
