David Kampf at 1C made me throw up in my mouth

Lol

I know it's not ideal but Kampf is really good defensively and has shown chemistry with Marner on the PK, so I think they could be an effective shutdown pair against another team's top line. Kerfoot is never scoring again so might as well put him in a defensive shutdown role as well.

Nylander, Jarnkrok and Lafferty seemed to work well together last game and managed to score an even strength goal against a top team in NJ. I think it's worth letting them get a few more games together to keep building chemistry.

First time?

Anyway this is more of a doomsday scenario since one of JT or Matthews will definitely play if they are less hurt than the other one. Let's say it's JT in and Matthews rests to recover from his latest nagging injury.

The lines vs. Edmonton on Saturday could be:

Kerfoot - Tavares - Marner
Jarnkrok - Lafferty - Nylander
Bunting - Kampf - Acciari
AstonReese - Holmberg - Steeves

McCabe - Brodie
Rielly - Liljegren
Gio - Holl

Murray
Samsonov

While I'll agree that if Matthews and Tavares aren't right, they should sit. But so many Leaf fans have so much faith in other team bottom enders......I'll put Accarili and Lafferty in that category, now that they are Leafs.

I wish Keefe would rotate some more the Dmen in and out of the lineup, just to keep everyone "fresh". It's unfair to team and player if he sits for weeks, and then in an emergency situation has to suddenly be NHL good.

Real lines if Tavares and Matthews were out:

Bunting - Nylander - Marner
Jarnkrok - Lafferty - Kerfoot
AstonReese - Kampf - Acciari
Steeves - Holmberg - Simmonds

McCabe - Brodie
Rielly - Liljegren
Gio - Holl/Schenn

This is what I originally wanted to do (and what the Leafs SHOULD do if both Tavares and Matthews were out) but I was trying to get inside Keefe's head and unfortunately his current logic is that Kerfoot is a top line guy over Nylander and Bunting...

No his logic isn't that - Kerfoot may not be putting up points, but his game has been better than bunting. Bunting plays with emotion. Before last game, he was shifting from his game, was getting pissed and arguing with refs for non calls. The demotion is to get him to figure it out. He did last game. when assessing Kerfoot you need to look at his game from a non point production aspect sadly. He may get paid too much but he does alot of the little things well. He will score soon, he's doing everything else right.

Nylander is second line because when matthews is healthy you spread out the top guys. when your roster is this depleted, you load it up

I admit that I oversimplified the situation with Kerfoot as Keefe believing he is a top line guy over Bunts and Willy. I agree Bunting needed the demotion to figure things out, and hopefully he has or will soon. His game-tying goal against the Devils should greatly help his confidence going forward.

I also agree with what you said about spreading out the top guys when Matthews is healthy and loading up the top line when he's not playing. Hopefully Keefe sees it the same way.

I wish I had the same faith in Kerfoot as you do that he will eventually score soon, but he's been snake-bittten all year with a career low shooting percentage and missing wide open empty nets, fumbling breakaways and 2-on-1s, not scoring on penalty shots, etc. I feel bad for him because he is trying his best and working hard to do all the little things right and just isn't getting a lucky break, but with all of the grade A looks he's getting, he NEEDS to bury those chances! Would you trust him to score in a game 7 right now? And let's not forget his brain fart drop pass in game 6 last playoffs. Nice guy and great teammate but 0% finishing ability this year. He needs to sit in the playoffs but probably won't.

You realize Kerfoot is like one of our top producers in the playoffs over the last few years right?
Playoff hockey is different. You'll see