The Maple Leafs practised at Black Rock Mountain Center in Heber City, Utah on Monday.
Chris Tanev is out and the Leafs are not sure when the 36-year-old defenceman will be back in their lineup.
“Not a great sense of that,” acknowledged coach Jim Hiller, who declined to reveal any details about what the injury is.
The team is describing it only as an “upper-body” issue.
The Leafs have placed Tanev on injured reserve, which means he will miss at least a week, including Toronto’s next three games.
“Just set him there for now and see where it goes,” Hiller said.
Tanev was limited to just 11 games last season while dealing with a concussion, spine injury and finally a groin issue that led to core muscle surgery in March. Toronto struggled without the shutdown blueliner last year, but Hiller is heartened by how his group responded after Tanev departed Saturday’s game in Denver.
“Well, I mean, hey, they fought like crazy on Saturday night,” Hiller said. “A guy like [Jake] McCabe, who is his partner, typically, has to play all those minutes. I thought he did an unbelievable job in his absence. There were others, you know, [Nick Blankenburg] coming in. So, it’s by committee. When a guy like that goes out for a time, you just do it by committee.”
The Leafs rallied from 3-2 down to beat the Colorado Avalanche 6-3. The Avalanche lead the NHL in goals per game (5.2) this season.
With Toronto dressing seven defencemen on Saturday, Blankenburg made his season and Leafs debut and scored on his first shift.
“It’s just guys stepping up and kind of just filling that void a little bit,” said captain Auston Matthews. “Obviously [Tanev’s] a huge, huge part of our back end and brings a lot of great intangibles and plays a lot of tough minutes against top lines. But I think it’s just a group effort for everybody to elevate, not just on the back end, but up front too, helping out our ‘D’ as much as we can and just making it easier on them.”
The Leafs juggled their top two defence pairs heading into Saturday’s game with McCabe partnering with Darren Raddysh and Tanev joining Morgan Rielly. With Tanev out, Troy Stecher is now skating beside Rielly.
“We’ll do different things with the ‘D’ corps,” Hiller noted. “But with those two, specifically, Mo’s a skater and Stech is a little bit more of a stay-at-home guy. You’re back to your traditional one guy who moves a little bit more and the other guy who kind of takes care of him.”
Toronto wraps up a three-game trip with a game against the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday.
Tanev travelled with the team from Denver to Utah, Hiller confirmed.
Tanev isn’t the only injury concern on the Leafs blueline right now as Oliver Ekman-Larsson also missed Monday’s practice.
“He should be fine,” Hiller assured. “It’s just a maintenance day for today.”
Ekman-Larsson left Thursday’s game in Las Vegas early after taking an unpenalized hard hit from Golden Knights defenceman Jeremy Lauzon.
Marshall Rifai, who was called up from the American Hockey League on Sunday, skated in Ekman-Larsson’s spot on the third pair at practice beside Blankenburg.
Rifai has played just three NHL games, all with the Leafs, since turning pro out of Harvard University in the 2022-23 season.
Rifai earned praise during training camp for fighting Florian Xhekaj after the Montreal Canadiens forward took runs at William Nylander and Auston Matthews during a pre-season game.
“He had a really good training camp,” said Hiller. “We saw the energy. We saw him get involved physically. You know, the fight is the one we all remember, stepping up for a teammate. And we thought he just played really well, so he’s earned that [call-up] and it’s great to have him here.”
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John Tavares has rejoined the team after a quick trip home to see newborn son Tucker.
“Just can’t say enough about my wife and, you know, what women go through to bring life into this world,” Tavares said. “I wasn’t able to make it so difficult not being there and being able to support her, but she was amazing.”
On Thursday, as he prepared to go to the rink for a game in Las Vegas, Tavares heard from his wife that there were some signs the baby may be coming sooner than expected.
“And as I’m eating after the game, I get the message from her, obviously middle of the night back in Toronto, that some contractions had started,” Tavares said. “So things went pretty quickly. She wasn’t in labour for very long and everything went really smooth.”
Tavares is grateful that both his parents and his wife’s parents were there to help.
It is the fourth child for Tavares and his wife Aryne. Tavares had been able to be at the birth of the previous three, including daughter Rae who arrived during the 2023 playoffs.
“I got home Friday evening and it was just great to embrace Tucker,” the 36-year-old centre said. “Just really special to get a couple days to spend with them, settle back into a new reality and enjoy all the firsts and how special it is, so it’s been great.”
As for the name, why Tucker?
“We just liked it,” Tavares said. “Nothing in particular. I think we just go through a lot of names and the two T’s and, you know, it’s not something I don’t think that was too far out there, but maybe not super common. So, yeah, it felt like it fit him and fit our family really well.”
Tavares writes the names of all of his children on tape at the top of his sticks.
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Tavares got back on the ice on Sunday before flying to Utah.
“Obviously family comes first and nothing more important than that, but I love playing,” the veteran of 18 NHL seasons said. “I love competing. I love being with my teammates and going through the grind of it. So when you’re away from it for a couple days, you know, you just get excited to get back at it. And, like I’ve always said, having kids has made it more and more meaningful. So it’s even more meaningful now with Tucker and having him completing our family and knowing what you play for and what the game means to you.”
Tavares definitely seemed to have some new dad energy at practice.
“He was flying out there today,” said Matthews. “I mean, he’s got four kids now, it’s pretty special. We’re all so excited for him. It’s obviously really nice to have him back for this last game [on the trip]. He’s a huge part of this team.”
“He looked so excited to be back out here and playing,” agreed Hiller. “You know, of course, family comes first, but John loves the game, and it was really evident to see the smile on his face and how good of a practice he had.”
Tavares was back in his usual spot in the middle of the second line skating between Easton Cowan and William Nylander. The team did not do any special teams work so it remains unclear if Tavares will reclaim his spot on the top power-play unit after Gavin McKenna filled in so well on Saturday.
McCabe, who was celebrating his 33rd birthday, led the stretch at the end of the workout, but teammates offered a couple rounds of stick taps for Tavares.
“It was Caber’s birthday today, so we had to throw him in the circle,” Matthews explained with a grin. “I heard we’re skating tomorrow, so we’ll make sure Johnny gets in there and we’ll give him some love.”
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Monday marked the 10th anniversary of the historic four-goal debut by Matthews.
“It’s definitely gone by really quick but, at the same time, it feels like it wasn’t too long ago,” the 29-year-old from Arizona said. “I think you kind of look back and I’m just fortunate to have the experience, the opportunities, and to be here today and just to continue the journey with a great group of guys. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Does he know where the four pucks are?
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t know where they are. I think my parents probably have them at their house somewhere. So, yeah, they’re pretty good at just kind of taking care of that kind of stuff. Yeah, I’m not good at that stuff.”
What he is good at is scoring goals. Matthews netted two more on Saturday in Colorado to cap off his second four-point night in a three-game span. The NHL named him the first star of the week.
“I’m glad he’s getting rewarded with some points because we all were saying, ‘Man, he’s playing really well,’” said Hiller. “But he hadn’t had a lot of points. That’s just how it goes. You stick with it and, all of a sudden, you get nine points in a week.”
“He’s ultra competitive,” observed Rielly. “He’s scoring. He’s playing well defensively. He’s doing everything anyone can ask of a player.”
After posting the two lowest goal-scoring seasons of his career, Matthews is looking more like the player who potted 69 in the 2022-23 season. The longer-than-usual off-season, which included rehab from knee surgery, appears to have served him well.
“In some ways, a bit of a blessing in disguise to get the seven months,” Tavares recently suggested. “He got to almost start from scratch in a way and build himself back up and work on some things and see how he can improve and use it as a chance to approach things maybe in a little different way.”
Prior to the season, general manager John Chayka highlighted that Matthews is “lighter and leaner” after a great summer.
“A lot of time, obviously, between my last game and up until this point,” Matthews said. “So I feel like I’ve put in a lot of really good work over the months and just continue to progress in different areas with the rehab, with your regular strength training and just trying to get to feel as good as possible coming into training camp, and I feel like I did that.”
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After the win on Saturday, the Leafs travelled to a resort in Heber City, Utah to enjoy a day off.
“I’ve been really happy with their work ethic and their camaraderie, the things you can control and try to build,” Hiller said. “I talked a lot about [improving] the spirit of the team when I first took over. I’m not surprised, but I’m really happy with where that’s gone.”
Even the opposition is noticing.
“Just watching their pre-scouts, I think they’ve got a renewed spirit, number one,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said before Saturday’s game. “Like, I think they’re playing hard, they’re playing up tempo, they’re making a lot of plays. Everyone is still a work in progress at this point, but that’s maybe the biggest change. Like, fresh start, new year, lots of new guys bringing energy and they look really good.”
Hiller has made skating a central focus of his system.
“As long as your feet are moving, you maintain a pace as a team,” Hiller said. “We haven’t been perfect there, and I think we can get better, but there have been a lot of really positive signs that way.”
One of those positive signs was provided by the team’s youngest player on Saturday night. McKenna backchecked hard to break up an odd-man rush and set in motion a sequence that ended in a Matthews goal.
“Gavin coming back on the power play, right? That’s skating,” Hiller said. “If you slow up just a little bit, he doesn’t get there. But he skated the whole way.”
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Lines at Monday’s practice:
Marchenko - Matthews - Roslovic
Cowan - Tavares - Nylander
McKenna - Paul - Sissons
Duhaime - Blueger - Groulx
Wood, MacEwen
McCabe - Raddysh
Rielly - Stecher
Rifai - Blankenburg
Bobrovsky
Stolarz