MONTREAL — Bobby McMann arrived at the Bell Centre Saturday morning with no clue about what the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup would look like.

“It was a learning curve, you could say,” McMann said, before smiling. “But it also brings excitement: playing with new guys, getting a new look, especially at this point of the season.”

McMann can indeed smile, not just because of his goal — his 10th of the season in just his 40th game — and the Leafs 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens, but because he knows he’s not going to have to deal with the many questions that will come out of the game itself. The importance of the Leafs win thanks to a late John Tavares goal was less about the result, and more about what coach Sheldon Keefe could learn from his new lineup with the playoffs on the horizon.

Keefe was without Mitch Marner due to a lower-body injury, which led to a newly-formed top line of Auston Matthews centring Tyler Bertuzzi and William Nylander. The latest trade deadline acquisitions, Connor Dewar and Joel Edmundson, led to four new forward lines and a new defence pairing as well. Ilya Samsonov returned to the net and continued a decent stretch, during which he’s won his last three games in a row with a combined .933 save percentage.

Add it up and there is no shortage of lineup-centred topics for Keefe and his coaching staff to mull over on the flight from Montreal back through the rain to Toronto.

First: how to get Matthews and his top line sparked, potentially in Marner’s absence next week? Against the Canadiens, he combined for zero points and a measly 28 percent five-on-five expected goals, the lowest total of any line.

“They weren’t very good,” Keefe said of the line.

Matthews scored the Leafs overtime winner against the Buffalo Sabres on March 6 but has had a series of less-than-dominant performances against strong Eastern Conference teams through March. Over the last five games, Matthews has been on the ice for just one five-on-five goal for and three goals against. Matthews hasn’t looked hard on pucks. Nor has he looked as effective in the offensive zone as we’ve come to expect from the former Hart Trophy winner.

The same can be said for Nylander, who has only been on the ice for two five-on-five goals for during the month and has been prone to defensive errors with the puck.

“Individually, they just weren’t very good,” Keefe added of the line. “It’s a night when the group picked them up. That was good.”

Was it the minor, but still nagging injuries? The justifiable fatigue from five games in eight nights late in the season?

Whatever the case, the pair is slumping. And Saturday’s game suggested even more lineup movement is likely. Could Keefe look lower down the lineup to those players who have been contributing offence and give their ice time a jolt?

Right now, McMann feels like a prime candidate.

As the Leafs looked slow out of the gates, McMann brought a consistent pace. His goal to open the second period brought his team to life and his 14:44 time on ice was his third-highest total of the season. All of that playing alongside the defensively-minded David Kampf.

A DOMI DASH 💨 pic.twitter.com/BqdHslanZo

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 10, 2024

“(McMann) is such a horse,” Max Domi said of his teammate. “Going back to the first time I met him at training camp, he was an absolute animal in the gym and on the ice. He’s really coming into his own now. He’s such a big part of this team. Great dude. And he deserves it all.”

It’s long past time to accept that McMann is no longer the player who might give Keefe some pop here and there in under 10 minutes a night.

“(McMann) had a real strong push for us a couple of weeks back, and then it sort of leveled off a bit. Here, at a time that is a tough stretch for us — four games in six nights in three cities — we needed some big efforts. Bobby certainly stepped up for us,” Keefe said.

McMann has improved at using his strength and speed to muscle past defenders and get to the net, where he’s most effective.

“The longer I play, the more games I play, I get more comfortable making reads rather than thinking. That’s where my game has grown: I just get to react and my skill takes over,” McMann said.

The former ECHL player has made himself a lock for the Leafs playoff lineup. Coming out of Saturday, how high in that lineup he can go? Does he deserve a longer look with Tavares, who he played with on March 7?

Tavares himself centred a line with Domi and Calle Jarnkrok, and the latter two were arguably the team’s best players on the night. Adding Dewar at the deadline forced Kampf up the lineup and Domi to the wing.

JOHNNY TORONTO! 🫡 pic.twitter.com/9dBIsqmWVN

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 10, 2024

Without the defensive responsibilities that come with playing in the middle, Domi looked more dangerous, scoring a breakaway goal and leading the Leafs in five-on-five expected goals (82 percent). Whether Domi will play on the wing this postseason now feels like a question Keefe has the answer to.

“Tavares’ group made some plays with (Domi) at key times in the game,” Keefe said.

Further back on the ice, Edmundson’s Leafs debut didn’t go exactly as hoped. There were moments when he looked intent on playing a simple and effective game, getting the puck to the net at will. But there were other moments when the towering blueliner struggled in his zone and came out with a team-worst 18 percent five-on-five expected goals.

While Edmundson deserves time to acclimatize to his new surroundings, it looks like his new defence partner, Timothy Liljegren, will also get the benefit of time even with his up-and-down game of late.

The domino effect of adding Edmundson — a left-shot defenceman with limited experience playing the right side — saw Simon Benoit forced out of the lineup in his hometown. Keefe wants to keep Liljegren’s right shot in the lineup.

“This is an important time in Liljegren’s development,” Keefe said Saturday morning. “We will give (Liljegren) a chance to grow within the role and with Edmundson.”

And so the most notable takeaway from the defence shuffling? Keefe appears patient with Liljegren. And that’s even as the defensive errors and questionable penalties add up, like the holding call that led to a power play score-tying goal.

“I know I need to dial things up defensively,” Liljegren told The Athletic. “I always play better defensively when there’s someone like Edmundson beside me.”

Keefe noted postgame that through the past two trade deadlines, the defenceman has been forced out, “which I thought affected his growth and his confidence,” he said.

Keefe added that Liljegren’s erratic play could be attributed to the looming deadline.

“We are through that now. We have a veteran player such as Edmundson coming in. That is why it was important for (Liljegren) to play tonight. When (Leafs GM Brad Treliving) built the team out, these were the six guys and how it was built,” Keefe said.

So for now, Liljegren appears to have some leeway. But how long will Keefe’s patience last if Liljegren doesn’t get his game ready for the layoffs by mid-April?

“We love the depth that (Benoit) has brought to us and his ability to come in, but (Liljegren) playing tonight was important and it is important for us to continue to work with him, Keefe said. “Obviously, Benoit is going to keep the group hungry as are (Mark Giordano) and (Conor Timmins) as they continue to work their way back to health.”

Finally, the lineup question that will become more of a focal point once the regular season concludes: Who is starting Game 1 of the playoffs in net?

Even if you account for the fact that the Canadiens and the Sabres fill two of the bottom three spots in the Atlantic Division, Samsonov did what Joseph Woll couldn’t this week — win hockey games.

Samsonov’s win Saturday felt like his quietest one over this last stretch. He moved calmly, lacking the erratic but athletic saves he can be prone to, and stopped 29 of 31 shots. That quiet play isn’t a bad thing for his progression out of an ugly start to the season that saw him placed on waivers.

So while Woll looked like the team’s playoff starter-in-waiting through October and November, you could now make a compelling case for both goalies to start in the postseason. Samsonov’s recent performances — or at least his results — may have even given him a slight edge. The rest of the regular season will determine just how far out of mind Samsonov’s midseason struggles are for Keefe, and whether the veteran goalie has earned the starter’s job back from Woll.

Samsonov’s performance raised big questions, but he’s not alone. What many of his teammates showed against the Canadiens could cause concern for Keefe about their places in the lineup long past that aforementioned flight has landed and into the final 18 games of the season.

 (Top photo of Bobby McMann taking the puck away from Arber Xhekaj: Eric Bolte / USA Today)