Sheldon Keefe makes a very surprising change to his lineup.

The Toronto Maple Leafs entered the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League regular season with some seriously lofty expectations on their shoulders, anything less than playoff success would be considered a major disappointment. There season under head coach Mike Babcock however got off to a rather poor start, resulting in the eventual termination of Babcock from behind the bench and the appointment of former Toronto Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe as his replacement.

Since the arrival of Keefe the Leafs have looked like a completely different team, recording a record of 14 - 4 - 1 under their new head coach, better than any other team in the league over that span of time. Keefe has seemingly worked his magic on the team and has done so to great success, but even a talented head coach may not be enough to fix every problem a team may have on the ice. One of the major issues for the Leafs this season has been their lack of any kind of reliable backup goaltending, with goaltender Frederik Andersen once again being tasked with the overwhelming majority of the workload, but now it seems like Keefe may be trying to work some magic in that aspect of the game as well.

Leafs backup goaltender Michael Hutchinson had failed to win so much as a single game for the Leafs prior to the firing of Mike Babcock, but the veteran backup did manage to finally register his first victory of the season under Keefe during the first game of a back to back. No doubt that had to be a major confidence boost for Hutchinson, and it may very well be that Keefe is once again looking to inspire confidence in his backup goalie. In spite of the fact that the Leafs are not playing in a back to back situation over the weekend, Sportsnet National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman reports that Keefe will be going with Hutchinson as his starter tonight when the Leafs face off against the New York Islanders. 

It is an eyebrow raising decision on the part of the Leafs coach to be sure but, perhaps with no obvious solution for an improvement at the position being available via trade or otherwise at the moment, it may be an attempt on the part of Keefe to get more out of his backup goaltender. There have been criticisms regarding the workload that Andersen has faced as a started in recent years, and finding a way to get more out of Hutchinson would allow Keefe to give his starter some additional rest throughout the remainder of the regular season.