Cowan, Matthews reunite as Maple Leafs shuffle lines for Mammoth test

TORONTO — Five weeks ago, as the Toronto Maple Leafs were wading through their brief pre-season schedule, Jim Hiller was asked about his philosophy on tinkering with line combinations. On the balance between conducting chemistry experiments and practicing patience.

“I think I’m pretty patient. And what you’ll say is, ‘I thought he said he was patient,’” the coach said then, with a chuckle. “I think I’ve been known to move things around quite a bit, and pretty quickly. If you ask me right now, I’m nice and patient. But there’s responsibilities. Not everybody’s going as well as they need to be on each given night — that doesn’t mean the same group doesn’t get back together the next game, but if we have some guys going and some guys not, then I’m pretty quick to shift those around.”

Through a month of this Maple Leafs campaign, that willingness to throw lines in a blender has been abundantly clear. Made no simpler by a blockbuster trade that shook up his room one day before the season began, a rash of injuries that’s pulled key leaders out of the lineup, and the emergence of a pair of young stars still finding their way in the league, Hiller’s side has become accustomed to seeing their line combinations switched up nearly every game — and transformed even further over the course of each tilt.

Take the rollercoaster journey of young Easton Cowan. 

Starting the year on the third line with Nick Paul and Colton Sissons, the 21-year-old worked his way up to the second line to play alongside John Tavares and William Nylander by the fifth game of the season. Then came a spell on the third line with Sissons and fellow young gun Gavin McKenna a few games later, before a move back to the top six to play with Paul and Kirill Marchenko one game after that.

Two weeks ago, the young winger got his first shot on the top line with Auston Matthews and Jack Roslovic, showing well alongside the captain. But a wobble on the road against Calgary saw Cowan bumped back down, linking up with Paul and Nylander on the second line against Seattle and Vancouver.

Tuesday night, with the Utah Mammoth in the building, he’ll be on the move again, as Hiller bumped the young Strathroy, Ont., standout back up to the top line beside No. 34.

“He’s played so well,” Hiller said of his young Swiss Army knife after Monday’s skate at the team’s practice facility. “Listen, he made a couple mistakes — everybody makes mistakes, a couple plays that we didn’t like, at inopportune times. Eventually, we’ve got to make some decisions. But we’ve loved how he’s played; we’ve loved how he’s progressed. 

“I’m not worried about him at all responding. We wanted to get that line back together because it’s been so good for us.”

For his part, Cowan said he isn’t sweating the regular rotations through the lineup.

“Wherever you’re playing on this team, there’s lots of good hockey players, so I’ve just got to keep playing my game and keep focusing on that,” he said Monday. 

The last time he played up top, a week ago against the Flames, the young winger tried to put the club’s 5-2 loss on his shoulders, calling out his own game despite doing well to try to pull Toronto back into it after some early mistakes. The focus Tuesday will be simplicity.

“Just got to get back to moving my feet. Just simple,” he said. “I feel like that’s just the adjustment you’ve got to make — you’ve got to know when you have it and know when you don’t. So, just learning that, learning puck management, keep trying to get better at that.”

The head coach is debuting a new second line Tuesday as well. After a strong first outing from Dakota Joshua on Saturday night in Vancouver, the veteran will slot in alongside Paul and Nylander when Utah comes to town.

“Both great players, obviously,” Joshua said of his new linemates Monday. “It’s nice to get a chance here early on, and make something happen. We’re just trying to read off of each other. Willy’s as dynamic as they come, so it’s just being there for support for him, and then getting a chance to attack when it presents itself.

“You let him cook it up, and then you try to be there for him when he needs help, and let the rest take care of itself.”

Bobrovsky set to return to the net Tuesday vs. Utah

Despite three straight sterling outings from Anthony Stolarz the last few times he’s been in the cage — registering wins against Columbus, Edmonton and most recently Vancouver — it’ll be veteran Sergei Bobrovsky back in net Tuesday night.

The 38-year-old has had a rocky start to the campaign through his opening month in Toronto and enters Tuesday night coming off less-than-stellar showings against Seattle and Calgary during the club’s western swing. But Hiller and the rest of Bobrovsky’s teammates remain confident in their man.

“He's one of the more battle-tested guys in this league,” Stolarz said of Bobrovsky Monday. “He's played in three Stanley Cup Finals. He's played in the Olympics. You know, we've seen him at his best. He’s one hell of a goalie. Just the way he works day in and day out. Like, the proof’s in the pudding.

“You know he'll go get back on track here and be coming up big for us moving forward.”

For Hiller’s part, the decision to turn the net back to the two-time champ was simply a matter of sticking to what was laid out for the pair coming into the campaign, rather than an assessment of either goalie's play to this point.

“We have a plan,” the coach said. “There’s always flexibility. But you look at the schedule in the summer, start to lay it out — talk to the goalies, talk to everybody. So it’s been laid out for quite some time.”

Chatter around the Maple Leafs’ goaltending situation has picked up of late, given the strong start from Stolarz (5-1-0, with a .910 save percentage through six games) and a rollercoaster opening month from Bobrovsky (3-5-2, with an .885 save percentage through 10 games). Still, Stolarz — who’s mentioned Bobrovsky as an important mentor for him time and again this season — is keeping his focus inward.

“I kind of just let it be,” he said of the decision-making around who gets the net. “You know, it's not up to me — my job is to go out there and prepare every day, and just be ready to go. That's all I've been focusing on. … I’m just focused on keeping my body healthy, working on the consistency in my game, working on things with (goalie coach) Curtis (Sanford). 

“I try not to get caught up in that, and just try to take it day by day, and focus on myself."

Bobrovsky will face a difficult test Tuesday in the quick-footed Utah Mammoth, who looked plenty dangerous when they took down the Maple Leafs in Salt Lake City last month.

“We gave up too many rush chances,” Hiller said of his club’s last outing against the Mammoth. “If you looked at our games, the times we haven’t played well or given up a lot of chances, it’s because we’ve turned the puck over. That’s what we did in Utah. It’s still a sore spot in our game. 

“If we take those out, we’re pretty solid. We give the other team easy offence, and it’s biting us. That’s what I take from that Utah game — we gave them too much that way.”

Duhaime talks paying it forward with youngest Leaf McKenna

While much of the Maple Leafs’ forward corps has been in flux through the opening weeks of the new season, one line has managed to stick: the fourth-line energy trio of Brandon Duhaime, Teddy Blueger and Zack MacEwan. Breaking out against the New York Rangers last month — a night that saw Duhaime lead the team with his first career three-point night and his line amass seven points total — the blue-collar group has found their footing as a key piece of the club’s early identity.

One of a slew of new faces who joined the Maple Leafs this off-season — signing a three-year, $7.8-million deal with Toronto after stints in Washington, Colorado and Minnesota — Duhaime’s taken on another important role behind the scenes, too, forming a bond with young locker neighbour McKenna, and doing his part to help the rookie learn the ropes in the big leagues.

“You know, I feel like for me, looking at the veterans that I had coming up and how good they were to me, it’s just paying it forward and trying to be a good teammate,” Duhaime said in a conversation with Sportsnet.ca Monday. “I was in the American League with guys like Cody McLeod, Mike Liambas, Matt Bartkowski — there was a really good veteran group that kind of took us under their wings and showed us the right way to do things.”

A fourth-round pick who worked his way up with the AHL’s Iowa Wild, Duhaime has a keen appreciation for just how difficult the jump to the NHL level is for any young player, even a first-overall talent.

“I mean, it’s the best league in the world for a reason. It’s the fastest pace. It’s difficult,” he said. “Making the jump, you know, I obviously spent time in the AHL, I adjusted through there and came to the NHL after that. Him coming out of college, it’s a huge step. For him to be doing this well this early, it’s impressive.”

The teenager’s shown glimpses of his elite skill already, collecting 11 points through his first 16 NHL games and becoming a nightly threat on Toronto's top power-play unit. But it’s what he’s shown off the ice, away from the cameras, that’s earned the respect of the veterans in the Maple Leafs’ room.

“Obviously his confidence and his skill and his on-ice stuff is impressive, you guys see that. But just the character that he is, it’s special,” Duhaime said. “You know, with being such a high-end pick, just him being super humble, being a super good guy, it’s nice to see.”

Maple Leafs’ lines at Monday’s skate:

Cowan — Matthews — Roslovic
Joshua — Paul — Nylander
McKenna — Sissons — Lettieri
Duhaime — Blueger — MacEwan

McCabe — Raddysh
Rielly — Tanev
Ekman-Larsson — Stecher
Mermis

Bobrovsky
Stolarz