Chris Tanev’s injury causes a meaningful shakeup for the Maple Leafs

That being said, Tanev’s injury (his placement on IR indicates he has missed three or more games) is causing a shakeup on the blueline and the Leafs can take advantage of that.

Carlo played just under 30 minutes of 5-on-5 with McCabe. That’s largely due to Craig Berube not wanting to mess with the good he has with McCabe-Tanev, but because things haven’t looked that good this year and Carlo hasn’t looked particularly good as a Leaf. Unfortunately, their time was cut short by the need to save the other couples, but an honest look at this duo is still warranted. It will be valuable to see if Carlo simply doesn’t work with Rielly or doesn’t work in the Leafs top four. While Berube and Treliving may not get that answer this weekend, they will at least have a better understanding of what the problem might be.

It doesn’t seem to be Dakota Mermis. He’s definitely an AHL level player and it seems likely that if it was more certain at the start of the weekend that Rielly wouldn’t play, a call-up of Thrun, Benning or Villeneuve would have been the strongest play. If there were five NHL defensemen in front of Mermis, his play probably wouldn’t matter, but Simon Benoit can’t move into a top four role, and putting Mermis with Myers was a dagger in the Leafs and the Sabers were able to take full advantage of it.

It will be interesting to see if Myers plays with Rielly when Morgan returns, as the dup had success last season and gives Toronto a little more luxury to try a few different things, also allowing Rielly and Ekman-Larsson to get some offensive zone faceoff starts together as both have stepped up their offense so far this season. Ultimately, if McCabe-Carlo can be anything, it may be worth giving Rielly a shot with Tanev as part of a defensive reshuffle, as Ekman-Larsson and Benoit make a fine third duo.

In the event that McCabe-Carlo doesn’t look compatible, it might be worth giving Myers an extended look with Rielly and switching to an Ekman-Larsson and Carlo pairing, and the goal against they had on Friday night was the product of the line blender and a fairly extended look could still make sense. It might be worth testing out what Ekman-Larsson and Carlo might look like as a meaningful Plan B. And given that Rielly’s history with Myers yields better results than the time he spent with Carlo (at least defensively speaking), the Leafs may have a lasting solution to improving their blueline.

The reality is that the early conclusion to Tanev and Rielly’s absences is that Craig Berube wants his usual combinations back as quickly as possible, especially with the forward group constantly on the move. But if there are lessons or improvements that come from the necessity of the current situation, the Leafs could be better off for them.