The Leafs will be down two key defencemen on Sunday night when they face the New Jersey Devils at Scotiabank Arena.
Morgan Rielly is out after sustaining an undisclosed lower-body injury on Saturday night. The team is still awaiting word on the extent of the injury.
Chris Tanev will join Rielly on the sidelines for load management. Tanev was limited to 11 games last season due to a series of injuries and the 36-year-old has already missed nine games this season with an undisclosed upper-body issue.
“We’re trying to manage him a little bit,” coach Jim Hiller said. “The guy wants to play every single game, every night. He was on the ice this morning.”
Tanev has played three games since returning from his latest injury last weekend in Vancouver.
The Leafs depth on defence is being severely tested with Marshall Rifai and Nick Blankenburg also out right now.
Dakota Mermis and Cole McWard will both draw in on Sunday and play together on the third pair. For McWard, it will be his 10th career NHL game and first with the Leafs.
“He’s just a Steady Eddie type of defenceman and that’s all we’re looking for from him,” said Hiller. “They’re a quick team, so they’re going to have their hands full like every other D pair will.”
Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who has just one assist in 18 games, moves up to second pair and projects to partner with Troy Stecher. The Leafs believe the 35-year-old Swede is capable of more.
“I thought he had his best game of the season last game,” Hiller praised. “So, he’s shown us already. He’s done it many times in his career. When he’s called upon, he’s stepped up. So I thought he started that process yesterday.”
With Rielly out and the Leafs trailing most of the game, Darren Raddysh played a season high 29 minutes and 43 seconds on Saturday night. Hiller points out that Raddysh’s ice time was inflated, in part, due to an extended man-advantage situation at the end of the game.
“Those aren’t the hardest minutes when you’re on the power play,” Hiller noted. “But, nonetheless, yeah, he’s going to have to dig in and we’ll definitely pull him back tonight. It’s going to be a challenge.”
The Leafs are 8-8-2 and sit seventh in the Atlantic Division.
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With McWard getting called up and Rielly remaining on the active roster, the Leafs had to send down third-string goalie Artur Akhtyamov, who dressed as the backup to Sergei Bobrovsky on Saturday.
The plan had been for Akhtyamov to back-up Anthony Stolarz on Sunday, but now Bobrovsky will have to dress.
Hiller declined to say if he will be making a change to his forward group.
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The Devils are 12-5-0 on the season, which puts them second in the Metropolitan Division.
“Really since the trade [for Connor Hellebuyck], it seems like it’s brought a lot of confidence to their whole team, not just their goaltending position,” Hiller observed. “So probably playing as well as anybody in the league right now, and it will be a challenge.”
The Leafs have lost four of five, including a 4-2 defeat to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
New Jersey is coming off a come-from-behind overtime win against the New York Islanders on Saturday night.
“I loved our game,” coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I loved our game from start to finish. We didn’t have the lead and we were chasing it a bit and there’s some plays around our net front that we have to do a better job of, but our guys played real hard. That was a hard game too. I don’t know what it looks like from upstairs or on TV, but from ice level that’s as fast and physical and competitive a game as I think we’ve been in all season, or certainly right there, and our guys didn’t go away. So, I loved it.”
New Jersey will be starting Hellebuyck, who is undefeated (4-0-0) since being acquired from the Winnipeg Jets.
Jake Allen picked up the win on Saturday. Why did the Devils save their No. 1 goalie for the second night of a back-to-back set?
“Had he played yesterday instead it would’ve been three games in five days and we weren’t ready for that or I don’t feel he’s ready for that,” Keefe explained. “So, just give him the extra day of rest and that’s how it falls into place. We played a division rival yesterday and it would’ve been nice to have him there but we’re still in the phase of getting him acclimated and getting him up and running.”
Does this schedule set up well for Hellebuyck to play in Winnipeg against his old team on Tuesday?
“We’ll worry about today,” Keefe said with a grin.
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Devils forward Anthony Mantha has returned to New Jersey after suffering a throat injury on Saturday.
“He is going to miss some time, we just don’t know the extent of it,” Keefe said.
New Jersey will dress seven defencemen on Sunday with Brenden Dillon drawing in.
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Sunday is the annual Hall of Fame Game in Toronto with the class of 2026 set to be honoured in a pre-game ceremony.
It will be a new experience for rookie winger Gavin McKenna, who wasn’t aware what the night entailed when asked about it on Friday. Your humble correspondent filled in the 18-year-old about what he should expect.
“That’ll be super cool,” McKenna said. “A lot of legends in the game so (smile) hopefully I can put on a show for them.”