{"id":950355,"date":"2026-11-02T22:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T22:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950355\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T22:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T22:36:11","slug":"cowan-matthews-reunite-as-maple-leafs-shuffle-lines-for-mammoth-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950355\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowan, Matthews reunite as Maple Leafs shuffle lines for Mammoth test"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014\u00a0Five weeks ago, as the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m pretty patient. And what you\u2019ll say is, \u2018I thought he said he was patient,\u2019\u201d the coach said then, with a chuckle. \u201cI think I\u2019ve been known to move things around quite a bit, and pretty quickly. If you ask me right now, I\u2019m nice and patient. But there\u2019s responsibilities. Not everybody\u2019s going as well as they need to be on each given night \u2014 that doesn\u2019t mean the same group doesn\u2019t get back together the next game, but if we have some guys going and some guys not, then I\u2019m pretty quick to shift those around.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s pulled key leaders out of the lineup, and the emergence of a pair of young stars still finding their way in the league, Hiller\u2019s side has become accustomed to seeing their line combinations switched up nearly every game \u2014\u00a0and transformed even further over the course of each tilt.<\/p>\n

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> a few games later, before a move back to the top six to play with Paul and Kirill Marchenko one game after that.<\/p>\n

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Two weeks ago, the young winger got his first shot on the top line with Auston Matthews<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Tuesday night, with the Utah Mammoth in the building, he\u2019ll be on the move again, as Hiller bumped the young Strathroy, Ont., standout back up to the top line beside No. 34.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s played so well,\u201d Hiller said of his young Swiss Army knife after Monday\u2019s skate at the team\u2019s practice facility. \u201cListen, he made a couple mistakes \u2014\u00a0everybody makes mistakes, a couple plays that we didn\u2019t like, at inopportune times. Eventually, we\u2019ve got to make some decisions. But we\u2019ve loved how he\u2019s played; we\u2019ve loved how he\u2019s progressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not worried about him at all responding. We wanted to get that line back together because it\u2019s been so good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Cowan said he isn\u2019t sweating the regular rotations through the lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWherever you\u2019re playing on this team, there\u2019s lots of good hockey players, so I\u2019ve just got to keep playing my game and keep focusing on that,\u201d he said Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The last time he played up top, a week ago against the Flames, the young winger tried to put the club\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust got to get back to moving my feet. Just simple,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like that\u2019s just the adjustment you\u2019ve got to make \u2014\u00a0you\u2019ve got to know when you have it and know when you don\u2019t. So, just learning that, learning puck management, keep trying to get better at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth great players, obviously,\u201d Joshua said of his new linemates Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to get a chance here early on, and make something happen. We\u2019re just trying to read off of each other. Willy\u2019s as dynamic as they come, so it\u2019s just being there for support for him, and then getting a chance to attack when it presents itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bobrovsky set to return to the net Tuesday vs. Utah<\/p>\n

Despite three straight sterling outings from Anthony Stolarz<\/a> the last few times he\u2019s been in the cage \u2014 registering wins against Columbus, Edmonton and most recently Vancouver \u2014\u00a0it\u2019ll be veteran Sergei Bobrovsky<\/a> back in net Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s western swing. But Hiller and the rest of Bobrovsky\u2019s teammates remain confident in their man.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s one of the more battle-tested guys in this league,\u201d Stolarz said of Bobrovsky Monday. \u201cHe’s played in three Stanley Cup Finals. He’s played in the Olympics. You know, we’ve seen him at his best. He\u2019s one hell of a goalie. Just the way he works day in and day out. Like, the proof\u2019s in the pudding.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know he’ll go get back on track here and be coming up big for us moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Hiller\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a plan,\u201d the coach said.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s always flexibility. But you look at the schedule in the summer, start to lay it out \u2014\u00a0talk to the goalies, talk to everybody. So it\u2019s been laid out for quite some time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chatter around the Maple Leafs\u2019 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 \u2014\u00a0who\u2019s mentioned Bobrovsky as an important mentor for him time and again this season \u2014\u00a0is keeping his focus inward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of just let it be,\u201d he said of the decision-making around who gets the net. \u201cYou know, it’s not up to me \u2014\u00a0my job is to go out there and prepare every day, and just be ready to go. That’s all I’ve been focusing on. \u2026 I\u2019m just focused on keeping my body healthy, working on the consistency in my game, working on things with (goalie coach) Curtis (Sanford).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI try not to get caught up in that, and just try to take it day by day, and focus on myself.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gave up too many rush chances,\u201d Hiller said of his club\u2019s last outing against the Mammoth. \u201cIf you looked at our games, the times we haven\u2019t played well or given up a lot of chances, it\u2019s because we\u2019ve turned the puck over. That\u2019s what we did in Utah. It\u2019s still a sore spot in our game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we take those out, we\u2019re pretty solid. We give the other team easy offence, and it\u2019s biting us. That\u2019s what I take from that Utah game \u2014\u00a0we gave them too much that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duhaime talks paying it forward with youngest Leaf McKenna<\/p>\n

While much of the Maple Leafs\u2019 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<\/a>, Teddy Blueger and Zack MacEwan. Breaking out against the New York Rangers last month \u2014\u00a0a night that saw Duhaime lead the team with his first career three-point night and his line amass seven points total \u2014\u00a0the blue-collar group has found their footing as a key piece of the club\u2019s early identity.<\/p>\n

One of a slew of new faces who joined the Maple Leafs this off-season \u2014 signing a three-year, $7.8-million deal with Toronto after stints in Washington, Colorado and Minnesota \u2014\u00a0Duhaime\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I feel like for me, looking at the veterans that I had coming up and how good they were to me, it\u2019s just paying it forward and trying to be a good teammate,\u201d Duhaime said in a conversation with Sportsnet.ca Monday. \u201cI was in the American League with guys like Cody McLeod, Mike Liambas, Matt Bartkowski \u2014\u00a0there was a really good veteran group that kind of took us under their wings and showed us the right way to do things.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fourth-round pick who worked his way up with the AHL\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it\u2019s the best league in the world for a reason. It\u2019s the fastest pace. It\u2019s difficult,\u201d he said. \u201cMaking 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\u2019s a huge step. For him to be doing this well this early, it\u2019s impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teenager\u2019s 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\u2019s what he\u2019s shown off the ice, away from the cameras, that\u2019s earned the respect of the veterans in the Maple Leafs\u2019 room.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously his confidence and his skill and his on-ice stuff is impressive, you guys see that. But just the character that he is, it\u2019s special,\u201d Duhaime said. \u201cYou know, with being such a high-end pick, just him being super humble, being a super good guy, it\u2019s nice to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs\u2019 lines at Monday\u2019s skate:<\/p>\n

Cowan \u2014 Matthews \u2014 Roslovic
Joshua \u2014 Paul \u2014 Nylander
McKenna \u2014 Sissons \u2014 Lettieri
Duhaime \u2014 Blueger \u2014 MacEwan<\/p>\n

McCabe \u2014 Raddysh
Rielly \u2014 Tanev
Ekman-Larsson \u2014 Stecher
Mermis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014\u00a0Five weeks ago, as the Toronto Maple Leafs were wading through their brief pre-season schedule, Jim Hiller…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-950355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}