Projecting The Toronto Maple Leafs Playoff Starting Lineup

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been experimenting with a number of different line combinations, both at forward and defence as they have been locked into a first round matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning for a while now and have home ice advantage already.

They have two injured players listed as day-to-day in Calle Jarnkrok and Matt Murray, but both should be back in time for the start of the playoffs. Other than that, they have been rotating through their nine defencemen on the roster. I can't imagine their defence will stay the same each playoff game, especially if they lose or mistakes are made, so I will include all nine in the lineup and where they stand in terms of in the lineup or out. The Maple Leafs have also been playing with 11 forwards and seven defencemen more often than not as of late, so that could alter things.

By looking at how well certain players have played with one another this season and how good their chemistry has been offensively and defensively, here's a look at what the Game 1 lineup for the Maple Leafs should look like:

Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews - William Nylander

Calle Jarnkrok - John Tavares - Mitch Marner

Alex Kerfoot - Ryan O'Reilly - Noel Acciari

Zach Aston-Reese - David Kampf - Sam Lafferty

Morgan Rielly - T.J. Brodie

Jake McCabe - Luke Schenn

Mark Giordano - Justin Holl

Erik Gustafsson - Timothy Liljegren

Conor Timmins

Ilya Samsonov

Matt Murray