Babcock’s fourth line experiment over after just one game

Last night the Toronto Maple Leafs iced a fairly unique fourth line with diminutive forwards Trevor Moore, Tyler Ennis and Nic Petan skating alongside each other. The trio, who are all 5 foot, 9 inches tall and well under 200 pounds heavy skated together in the Leafs’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks with somewhat lukewarm results.

Leafs head coach Mike Babcock was searching for a new look on his fourth line and threw the three waterbeds together as an experiment, an experiment that now seems to be over.

“I couldn’t use it as much in D-zone, you know what I mean?” said Babcock after the game when asked about the Petan line.

“Everybody loves players, that’s great, but you’ve got to be able to use lines and everyone’s got to have a role and someone’s got to penalty-kill and someone’s got to be able to take faceoffs. So I didn’t think I gave our team, with that lineup, as good an opportunity as I might have wanted.”

With a first round matchup against the Boston Bruins all but assured, now is time for Babcock to tinker with his lineup to see what kind of different looks he can produce. Having said that, don’t expect the five-foot-nine line to be back anytime soon. 

No official word yet, but look for 6 foot, 5 inch center Frederik Gauthier to draw into the lineup for Petan against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night.