Predicted Maple Leafs Lineup Tonight: Toronto's projected lines for game against Buffalo Sabres

The Toronto Maple Leafs are set to go on the road to play the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday at 5 p.m ET. Toronto (3-3-1) is coming off a 5-2 home loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, which was their second-straight loss.

Ahead of their road game against the Sabres, here is what the Maple Leafs' lineup is projected to look like.

Maple Leafs projected lines

Forwards

Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Easton Cowan
Matias Maccelli - John Tavares - William Nylander
Nick Roberson - Max Domi - Bobby McMann
Steven Lorentz - Nic Roy - Dakota Joshua

Cowan is expected to draw back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch on Tuesday. The top prospect will get another chance on the top line as he looks to try and find chemistry with Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies.

The Maple Leafs' top line has struggled to find a third player, and coach Craig Berube wasn't ruling out putting William Nylander on the top line.

“I mean, I always want a little balance,” Berube said, via Sportsnet. “But it’s definitely something that I’m thinking about.”

Meanwhile, Berube wanted more offense from the top line.

“When you want to create offensive zone time, you got to put pucks in with a purpose. You got to then you got to go and get it, and you got to be physical, and you got to be heavy on your sticks," Berube said of Matthews and Knies. “You got to win those battles to get those pucks back. And they just got to do better job with it. That’s really the bottom line.”

Defense

Morgan Rielly - Brandon Carlo
Jake McCabe - Chris Tanev
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Simon Benoit

The Maple Leafs brought back the same six defensemen from last year, and through seven games, they have all remained in the lineup and are playing together.

Goalies

Cayden Primeau
Anthony Stolarz

The Maple Leafs will likely turn to Primeau on Friday so Stolarz can play at home on Saturday against Buffalo.

Primeau is 1-0 with a 4.00 GAA and a .867 SV% this season. He's 1-0 with a 3.88 GAA and a .887 SV% in his career against Buffalo.

About the author

Cole is an NHL, NFL and College Sports reporter at Sportskeeda with over 7 years of experience writing for publications like CBC, USA Today, SMG, BJPENN, Sherdog and SB Nation.

An NHL fan his whole life, Cole played rep hockey in Canada from age 5 until 17 and grew up rooting for Martin St. Louis and the Tampa Bay Lightning. His all-time favorite players are Vincent Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos, while Jon Cooper is his favorite coach of all time.

Cole attended Sheridan College and received his journalism degree in 2019. After decades of watching and reporting, he considers his knowledge of sports as his primary strength. He ensures that the same story has been reported by at least two reputed reporters before creating it.

Cole enjoys playing golf and spending time with friends and family when not reporting breaking stories. His favorite sports moment is from the 2010 Olympics, when Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal in overtime to beat Team USA for the gold medal.

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