Maple Leafs Scratch Chris Tanev Again For Planned Maintenance And They Don’t Want To Talk About It

Defenseman Chris Tanev will not be featuring for the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. The team said that this is another case of "planned maintenance."

This is the second time that the team has scratched Tanev for the purpose of load management. The first instance came on Sunday against the New Jersey Devils, which saw Cole McWard take his spot in that outing, and he will do so again on Thursday.

Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller was not interested in explaining the team's maintenance plan for Tanev further than he had the first time. 

When he was asked why he's sitting out of this game, he said, "I'm not going to get into that. I think there's been a lot of talk about that."

Also, when asked about how Tanev is delivered the news of when he is or isn't playing, he refused to answer that question, too.

"Again, I'm not going to get into all that," he said. We've talked about it. He's going to play the next game. We'll just leave it at that for now."

As he said, the veteran defenseman will play against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. He's played 10 games so far this season, notching one assist and averaging 17:52 of ice time per game.

In the instance against the Devils, the Maple Leafs were in a back-to-back situation, but this time they have one day between Thursday's game and Saturday's game.

Tanev, 36, has made it clear that he does not agree with the team's decision to keep him out of certain games. But he also said he understands why this is the plan.

He has gone through multiple serious injuries and time off over the past year, which is the reason for Toronto's cautious approach with him. 

Last season, he only played 11 games, with core surgery and spine trauma among the causes. Earlier this season, he missed some time again with an upper-body injury, missing about three weeks of game action. 

That injury occurred on Oct. 10 against the Colorado Avalanche, and he returned on Oct. 31 against the Vancouver Canucks.

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