Columnist image

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

| Archive

TORONTO – Cody Ceci knew almost instantly that when he turned his ankle during the Maple Leafs’ tilt against the New York Rangers on February 5, the result was not going to be good.

“I just kind of stepped back and unfortunately just went over on my leg a little bit,” Ceci said after taking part in the Leafs’ morning skate on Saturday, ahead of facing the Vancouver Canucks. “Didn't feel too bad until I tried to skate again [on my next shift], kind of disguised it a little bit, and then right from there, I knew I was going to be out for bit.”

Ceci is just one of the Leafs’ walking wounded on defence, joining Morgan Rielly (fractured foot) and Jake Muzzin (broken hand) on the sidelines during a crucial stretch for Toronto in trying to maintain its position in the NHL playoff race. At the time of his injury, Ceci was averaging the fourth-most even strength ice time among Leafs (17:44 per game), and had collected one goal and five assists in 54 games. 

Out-pacing Ceci in 5-on-5 ice time were both Rielly (19:44) and Muzzin (18:48), creating an even bigger void for the Leafs to fill once Muzzin broke his hand blocking a shot in Tuesday's win over Tampa.

While Ceci freely admits it’s been nice commiserating with teammates – and having someone to hang out with during the rehab process – it’s excruciating at times to only be an observer.

“It's definitely tough,” Ceci said. “[Rielly and I] have been hanging out a lot lately and it's hard to watch sometimes when all you want to do is help out and your team is just trying to win every game and trying to keep us in that playoff spot. From a selfish standpoint, yeah, it's nice to have some company, and now with Muzz out too, but you also don't really want that company.”

Toronto originally announced that Ceci would be re-evaluated in a month’s time following his injury, but Ceci thinks he might even be a little ahead of schedule in his recovery. The blueliner has been back on the ice now for about a week, and while he isn’t sure when that next game will come, Ceci will join the Leafs on their upcoming trip to California to try and take that next step towards a return.

“It’s just getting some full practices and getting some contact too,” he said. “I’ll go [to California] and try and get in a full practice; that’ll be a better telltale sign for me. But I think it's been moving along pretty good. The [staff] that we have here are incredible, they have access to everything, every machine possible; it's crazy.”

Leafs’ head coach Sheldon Keefe hasn’t received a timeline either on when Ceci might be ready to go, but the fact he participated in the morning skate on Saturday tells him plenty.

“It is positive stuff of course that he was out there and it looks like he was doing well,” Keefe said. “As long as there are no setbacks, we'll just continue to have him progress.”

In the meantime, Toronto will attempt to keep getting by with the patchwork defence it used to good success in a come-from-behind win over the Florida Panthers on Thursday. That was the Leafs’ first game without all three of Rielly, Ceci and Muzzin, who will be out at least four weeks with that broken hand. 

Keefe went with seven defencemen against the Panthers, slotting in both Timothy Liljegren and Calle Rosen. That won’t be the case again when Toronto faces the Canucks, with Keefe opting for a more traditional 12-forward look up front and giving Liljegren the night off.

That means Rosen will slot in for a second straight game since the Leafs re-acquired him from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for goaltender Michael Hutchinson on Feb. 24. Rosen will replace Rasmus Sandin as the Leafs’ least experienced blueliner in Saturday’s game – he’s suited up in 17 NHL contests while Sandin has played in 25 – but Toronto has no choice right now but to lean on whomever it can.

“[Like any] young defencemen, they’re still having times when it's a little more inconsistent than you'd like because of the pressure the opposition puts on you. It's a little bit quicker [in the NHL],” Keefe explained. “You can question yourself a little bit. So I think it's important that we keep things in context with both of those guys and take things slowly.”

Still, Rosen is grateful to feel as comfortable as he does with the Leafs’ organization, given the pivotal moment in which he’s re-joined its ranks. The 26-year-old played for Keefe as part of the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies from 2017-19, before he was traded to Colorado on July 1 with Nazem Kadri in exchange for Alex Kerfoot and Tyson Barrie.

Now that Keefe is behind the Leafs’ bench and Toronto’s blueline is made up of Marlies graduates Justin Holl, Travis Dermott, Sandin, and Rosen’s third-pairing partner Martin Marincin, Rosen’s been able to pick up practically where he left off prior to being moved.

“I know most of the guys and know the coach and the GM [Kyle Dubas] and the system and organization and that helps a lot,” Rosen said. “So I feel comfortable and it's just fun to be here around these guys again and try to help the team. I think you could sense it today, everybody's pumped up for the next coming games here and I'm just excited to be a part of it now.”

While Ceci would love to be doing his part as well, it’s impressed him how Toronto’s defence rose to the occasion this week with a pair of big wins in Florida, a winning streak the Leafs will try to keep alive against Vancouver.

“They've done a great job,” Ceci said of Toronto’s young defencemen. “They've come into a pretty high pressure situation where we're fighting every night for points in huge games and they've done a great job coming in and just competing for us.”

 

Maple Leafs projected lineup vs. Vancouver:

Hyman-Matthews-Marner

Nylander-Tavares-Kerfoot

Clifford-Spezza-Kapanen

Engvall-Gauthier-Malgin

 

Dermott-Holl

Sandin-Barrie

Rosen-Marincin

 

Andersen starts

Campbell​