Opinion | 13 musings: The Maple Leafs have the lineup flexibility NHL coaches dream of

If there is anyone happier in Toronto than Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe, then that’s a very lucky person.

Keefe seems delirious that he’ll get to play with centres the way a kid might play with Hot Wheels or action figures.

The early returns on adding two veteran centres in Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Accaria seem fairly positive. The Leafs are 3-1-0, and both are producing points.

Since the trade, the Leafs are also No. 1 in faceoffs (58.4 per cent) led by O’Reilly, who has won 69.8 per cent of his draws (30 of 43). Even that new left-winger is pretty good at taking draws as John Tavares is at 63.6 per cent (seven of 11, mostly power play where he remains the No. 1 centre). David Kämpf had an otherworldly night against the Sabres, winning 16 of 18 and now is at 61.2 per cent (30 of 49).

Acciari, notably the only right-handed centre, is not so good, 38.1 per cent (eight of 21).

You can see why Keefe is excited. Having Tavares at left wing maybe even turns that line to the new No. 1 line, supplanting Auston Matthews, who, by the way, has won 21 of his last 37 draws (55.3 per cent). But dropping O’Reilly to the third line, Kämpf to the fourth, and reinstating Tavares to the second-line centre position remains a possibility.

It’s like the Leafs lines are a puzzle, one that’s easier than ever to put together.

As always, if you have a question, email me at [email protected] and I’ll answer it in the next Mailbag. Until then, we have the 13 Musings. A day late, sorry. But that’s what statutory holidays do sometimes.

1. Kyle Dubas’s big trade with St. Louis offered up a couple of new nicknames: The Ontario Line for Tavares-O’Reilly-Mitch Marner (all Ontario born and actually cheaper than the new subway line being built) and (courtesy Joe Bowen): Ryan O’Postrophe … That’d be a way to differentiate O’Reilly from defenceman Morgan Rielly.

2. Rielly overheard the Toronto media talking about him before a scrum. He wondered what we were talking about. I asked if he could convince O’Reilly to change the spelling of his last name, you know the whole I before E thing. “You guys are in trouble,” he said.

3. Then they were off to play the Chicago Blackhawks, who have a Tyler Johnson, a Reese Johnson and Jack Johnson. A nightmare for the play-by-play guys, to be sure. And I thought there were too many Connors.

4. Another good nickname … The Triple A line: Alex Kerfoot, Zach Aston-Reese and Acciari. Turns out it’s a pretty good line, too.

5. I would love it if Blues GM Doug Armstrong turned around and traded the assets he just got to acquire Timo Meier and maybe even Erik Karlsson and just fool everybody. That would be a remake on the fly.

6. Before the big trade happened one thing that might have gone viral that didn’t was Tavares and Marner doing a table read from the movie “The Notebook,” a scene where a couple argues, at a team fundraising gala. “I think we had a good scene that got us both really drawn into it and had some fun with it,” said Tavares. “It was harder than I expected. I was a little a little nervous and really didn’t think I had any type of acting skill. But I got a few compliments from the guys and from my table that I was sitting at.”

7. The critics gave it a thumbs up: “I was pretty impressed with the emotion,” said Mark Giordano.

“It was a little different to see them doing that stuff, but I think everyone enjoyed it,” said Rasmus Sandin. It was great to see a different side of them,”

8. The Toronto Marlies have figured out time travel. The record shows that on Jan. 13, Pontus Holmberg got an assist in the Marlies 4-2 win over the Manitoba Moose. On that very same day he was enjoying a day off as a Maple Leaf in Boston.

9. The record also miraculously shows that Joe Woll’s winning streak — which had been set at 12 games when he got called up the Leafs — got reset to 13 games because he was the winning goalie on “Jan. 13.”

10. Trivial matters to be sure, but this was the result of the Marlies and Moose picking up on Feb. 13 where they left off on Jan. 13 when the game was interrupted by a fan needing medical attention in the first intermission. (She survived). The Leafs had sent Woll and Holmberg (as well as Alex Steeves) back to play the two periods. Holmberg wasn’t even on the Marlies for that original first period on Jan. 13. Woll was a Marlie, but didn’t even dress for that game. On Feb. 13, it amounted to a two-period game. “It was weird,” said Holmberg.

11. Some other oddities: Nick Abruzzese’s goal, inserted back to Jan. 13, means he tied Rasmus Sandin’s Marlies record eight-game rookie points streak.

12. The weirdest, rookie Marc Johnstone scored. He’d gotten four as a pro after Jan. 13. But this one — scored on Feb. 13 — now counts as his “first” as a pro because it officially goes down as Jan. 13 goal. “We taped up the puck and gave it to him,” said Woll.

13. The Marlies, by the way, look very much like Calder Cup contenders, unless the NHL trade deadline guts them. Adam Gaudette — sent to the Blues — had been their leading goal scorer. But now Pontus Holmberg is back with them. Presumably he’ll play much bigger and more important minutes down the stretch.

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