Craig Berube makes big changes to his lineup on Sunday.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are making significant changes to their lineup on Sunday, although I do have to wonder how much of that is due to head coach Craig Berube's feelings about the performance of his players and how much of it stems from the opponent that the Leafs will be facing this evening.

Berube confirmed no fewer than 6 changes to his lineup on Sunday when he announced that Forwards Fraser Minten and Pontus Holmberg would be on the sidelines for today's game, with both men being joined by defenseman Conor Timmins. Berube putting his players on the sidelines obviously means that he intends to add to his lineup as well, and the Leafs head coach confirmed that enforcer Ryan Reaves, forward Nicholas Robertson and defenseman Philippe Myers would all slot into the lineup today.

Berube also revealed that backup goaltender Dennis Hildeby would get his third start of the season tonight.

As I mentioned it is hard to gauge how much of this is due to the players individual performances and how much the opponent of tonight's game, the Buffalo Sabres, is being factored in. The Sabres have been on an abysmal stretch as of late and, although they are technically an Atlantic Division rival, they don't exactly look like the most threatening team in the National hockey League right now as a result.

The Sabres have just 1 win over their last 10 games, a record of 1-6-3 over that stretch, and Berube may view this as an opportunity to give certain players, like goaltender Joseph Woll, a night off to recuperate from what is the long grind of the NHL regular season.

Here's a look at how the lines and pairings look in warmups:

Knies-Matthews-Marner
Pacioretty-Tavares-Nylander
McMann-Domi-Robertson
Lorentz-Dewar-Reaves

McCabe-Tanev
Rielly—Ekman-Larsson
Benoit-Myers

Hildeby
Woll