“I Don’t Have Any Real Sense Of What Our Lineup Is Going To Look Like Tomorrow': Banged Up Maple Leafs Likely to Have John Tavares Back Against Blues, But the Rest is a Mystery
John Tavares returned to practice on Sunday after missing the last game with an undisclosed injury, but the club was short many defensemen.
The Toronto Maple Leafs prepared for their four-game road trip with one final practice on Sunday but there were just five defensemen on the ice.
One of them was Morgan Rielly, who had just served his third game of a five-game suspension. And another was Marshal Rifai, whom the Leafs just called up on an emergency basis after William Lagesson sustained an upper-body injury in the club's 9-2 victory against the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.
Timothy Liljegren and Jake McCabe both missed practice due to maintenance days. The same goes for forward Max Domi. Mark Giordano continues to be away from the club to mourn the passing of his father, Paul. That has left Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe to scramble to figure out a game plan against the St. Louis Blues for Monday's Presidents' Day matinee.
“At this point, quite honestly, I don’t have any real sense of what our lineup is going to look like tomorrow," Keefe said.
"The good news for the Leafs is that Lagesson's status was upgraded on Sunday. After initially hinting that the defenseman was going to miss some time, Keefe said Lagesson is day-to-day and "not ruled out for tomorrow". But everyone else is a game-time decision.
The Leafs are also without defenseman Conor Timmins, who was diagnosed with mononucleosis earlier this week and is out indefinitely. Timmins was at the practice facility working out and appears to be getting better, according to Keefe.
"The nature of it with mono and everything it’s more than just how you feel," Keefe explained. "He’s got to go through a few medical appearances before progressing to getting on the ice and such and he’s not there yet."
Although it's a highly unlikely scenario, the Leafs could hope for Morgan Rielly's appeal verdict from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to be rendered on Monday morning. If his suspension gets reduced from five games to three, Rielly would be eligible to play against the Blues on Monday afternoon. That could be wishful thinking. But it would be a welcomed boost to a position that has had some bad luck as of late.
To their credit, the Maple Leafs are 3-0-0 since Rielly was suspended for his cross-check to the head of Ottawa Senators forward Ridly Greig. Now they'll get some more help with Tavares likely to return to the lineup after being a full participant at practice on Sunday.
"I'm really happy with things," Tavares said about the undisclosed injury that occurred in Toronto's 4-3 overtime win against the Philadelphia Flyers. "Woke up Saturday feeling pretty good and was really hoping to give it a go. The medical staff wanted to make sure we were on top of things and give it a little extra time."
Goaltender Martin Jones also missed practice for a scheduled day off. He returned to the lineup and made 19 saves on Saturday after missing most of the week with an undisclosed injury.
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