Maple Leafs Projected Lineup vs. Buffalo Sabres Features a Few Notable Changes

Coming off a 5-2 shellacking at the hands on the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, the Maple Leafs had a couple days off to gather their thoughts and focus on what's ahead of them as they go into a back-to-back against the Buffalo Sabres.

Changes have to be made, and Craig Berube was very honest about his assessment of his crew and mentioned he was tired of the same results.

We saw some seriously big changes yesterday with William Nylander and Bobby McMann on the top line instead of Matthew Knies and whichever revolving winger was scheduled that day.

Hopefully it can lead to great success, but that wasn't the only change made in practice, and the lineup going into Buffalo (while not concrete as of yet) looks incredibly different:

Night and day from what we anticipated this year, injuries and struggles has led Berube to make some big moves. Matthew Knies slides to the second line for one of the lone times in his career, and will hopefully add that bulkiness Tavares has needed.

William Nylander earns the top winger spot beside Matthews as he probably should, as not only does he lead the team in points but also the entire NHL with 11 assists.

That will hopefully spark Auston Matthews again, and finally give him a star playmaker that right now, he desperately needs. Bobby McMann will get a chance to show what he can do, and will provide that speed and energy needed while also bringing the offense and physicality Knies did.

Easton Cowan earns a spot in the lineup again with Nic Roy and Dakota Joshua; two big bodies who can hopefully open up some space and let him get his offense going.

With the injury to Chris Tanev, the defense looks miles different with Jake McCabe and Brandon Carlo as the top pairing while Dakota Mermis (who was called up recently) and OEL occupy the second pairing while Philippe Myers also makes his season debut alongside Simon Benoit.

Morgan Rielly, who was absent from practice on Thursday, is not playing on Friday as he deals with an unspecified injury, another blow to the Maple Leafs blueline.

Anthony Stolarz starts his seventh game of eight, and he's hoping that this new look defense can end up giving him some much more help than they have previously.

It's going to look a lot different on Friday night, but the Toronto Maple Leafs will get a fresh start with some new lines against the Buffalo Sabres, and they are needing to have a strong performance from top to bottom.

If not, then no amount of lineup changes are going to fix things and there may be a need to blow up some of the roster instead.