The Toronto Maple Leafs announced that James Reimer has a mild MCL knee strain and is expected to be out for a minimum of one week.
Reimer left Toronto's 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers after stretching across the goal crease to make a save. He struggled to get back to his feet before play was stopped.
Reimer left the ice without putting any weight on his left leg and did not return.
The Leafs return to action on Thursday night in Carolina against the Hurricanes and have not made any moves yet to replace Reimer on their roster.
If they choose to call-up someone from the American Hockey League, then a prime candidate is Jussi Rynnas, who has played nine of the 12 games for the Toronto Marlies since Ben Scrivens left for training camp last month.
"For sure, if something happened like that, I'm ready to go," said Rynnas Tuesday when asked about a possible promotion. "But it's not my problem right now. I just got to focus on this game today and we'll see what happens."
Rynnas, who will start Tuesday's Marlies game in Hamilton, has a .914 save percentage and 2.54 goals against average in 16 outings (8-7-1) with the Marlies this season.
Rynnas was called up last season when Reimer went down with an injury. On March 27, 2012 he replaced Jonas Gustavsson, who was pulled one minute into the second period during a game against Carolina. Rynnas stopped all 10 shots he faced in the relief performance. Two days later he made his first career NHL start after Gustavsson was injured in the warm-ups before a game against Philadelphia. Rynnas struggled that night allowing seven goals on 30 shots against the Flyers.
"He's been up there before," said Marlies head coach Dallas Eakins. "He understands what the routine is there, what the building's all about. If he's ever presented that chance I'm sure it won't be a massive adjustment for him."
Rynnas, who worked on Tuesday morning with Leafs goalie coach Rick St. Croix, has struggled to get in a groove in the AHL since joining the Marlies in 2010.
"I think he's been working extremely hard at his game," said Eakins. "In the past he has had a hard time getting a number of starts in a row [due to] injury. He'd get on a roll and something would happen, he'd get hurt, so I think he's just kind of getting into a groove of getting regular starts.
"His play has been adequate. He's kept us in enough games … but this a guy who hasn't played a lot for us in the last couple of years, like I said, due to injury and due to Scrivens having that No. 1 job so his development continues."
The other goalie on the Marlies roster is Mark Owuya, who has an .869 save percentage and 3.29 goals-against average in seven games (3-4-1) with the Marlies this season.
