The Toronto Maple Leafs are deep into preparation for their first-round series against the Boston Bruins, which gets underway tomorrow night. Despite a few days off, the Leafs could already be in injury trouble heading into Game 1.
On Friday afternoon, both William Nylander and Bobby McMann were not on the ice for practice and may not look to be a part of tomorrow’s opening roster.
This could be a serious problem.
Injury woes for the Toronto Maple Leafs
At his press conference, head coach Sheldon Keefe had this to say on the status of both players:
“We kept him off the ice today. He and Bobby McMann stayed off the ice, but both are possibilities for tomorrow. That is it. Tre has made it pretty clear to me that there will not be daily injury updates or anything like that. Our guys are available. That is it.”
Outside of that, there was very little clarity on if this was injury-related for Nylander or what exactly could be impacting #88. McMann has been off the ice since April 13 after suffering a lower-body injury, so his status seems much more unlikely to start the season.
Transparency is hard to come by during the playoffs, which is not uncommon, but since Nylander played on Wednesday’s season finale it makes it that much more suspicious. Although the team will be getting Calle Jarnkrok back in the lineup it looks like, Nylander’s absence will be felt across the entire ice.
If he is out for just a single game, or even longer, it could truly impact how dangerous the Leafs’ forward deployments are against the Bruins. Here’s to hoping that it is nothing.
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