NHL analyst pinpoints Toronto Maple Leafs’ biggest strength post one-sided 7-2 win over Flyers

The Toronto Maple Leafs dominated the Philadelphia Flyers to win 7-2 at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday. Toronto received contributions from their newly formed second line of John Tavares, William Nylander and Bobby McMann.

That trio combined for five of the seven goals, with Tavares (two goals, two assists) and Nylander (two goals, two assists) each racking up four points, while McMann (one goal, one assist) had two himself.

Maple Leafs radio broadcaster Joe Bowen appeared on TSN's "First Up" on Wednesday and was asked for his thoughts on the team's current lineup following the blowout win over Philadelphia. He believes Toronto's ability to move its best players around in the lineup is a strength of theirs heading down the stretch run.

"I think that under the circumstances that you want your best players playing with each other, and I think that's exactly what's going on," Bowen said. "The biggest thing is it's not one line, then you have an opportunity, as a defensive coach, to say, okay, that's the group, that's the group that has to be shut down, so you don't have that now," Bowen said (5:10).

"So I think under the circumstances that it's something that Craig Berube likes, you can always tinker with it and mix it up a little bit and have it sit down to a third line by double shifting Nylander or double shifting Marner, or something of that nature or another, and we've certainly seen that on occasion. So I don't think that it is something to be concerned about. I think it's something to be celebrated because it's not just one line driving the train. It's two that are doing pretty darn well at it and a third that you think has the potential to maybe chip in some important goals as well."

The Maple Leafs have been rotating which forward is a healthy scratch, and on Tuesday, it was Pontus Holmberg. Previously, David Kampf had been the odd man out, which may have sparked him to bury his fifth goal of the season against Philly.

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The Maple Leafs now head out west for a California road trip

The Toronto Maple Leafs are off to the West Coast for the annual California road trip to finish off the month of March.

The three-game trip begins in San Jose with a game against the league-worst Sharks on Thursday. They will then head to Los Angeles to play the Kings, who have the best home record in the NHL at 26-3-4 on Saturday. The final stop will come on Sunday when they take on the Ducks at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

The Maple Leafs swept the California trip last season and will hope to have that same success this week as they chase down the Atlantic Division title. They're currently tied with the Florida Panthers (89 points) for the No. 1 spot in the Atlantic Division, however, they do hold the tiebreaker with more ROWS (regular-overtime wins).

Toronto kicks off the trip on Thursday against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center. The puck drop is scheduled for 10:30 p.m. EST.