Going into tonight's tilt against the 2-1-2 Islanders of New York, the Toronto Maple Leafs have replaced young defense man Carl Gunnarsson with veteran Brett Lebda and for his part, Lebda who recently recovered from a hip injury is taking the pressure of possibly being the fly in the ointment all in stride.
“If I go in there and we lose, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Lebda said jokingly after Sunday’s practice.
Gunnarsson had had a bit of a rough camp, and his uncharacteristic lack of confidence has carried over into the regular season, and while many fans and media may see this move as potentially a bad omen, Lebda replacing Gunnarsson had as much to do with strategy as it did performance.
It simply made more sense to ease Lebda back in on the heels of an injury by putting him with Komisarek on the third defensive pairing. The Leafs top four of Beauchemin, Kaberle, Schenn and Phaneuf have been getting the lion's share of the work averaging almost 24 minutes a game while the third pairing had only been getting around 13.
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Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Eric Warren
Toronto Maple Leafs Still Perfect as Brett Lebda Gets a Chance
October 18th, 2010 by Eric Warren Leave a reply »
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