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UPDATE - The Leafs have placed defenseman Morgan Rielly on injured reserve and have recalled Rinat Valiev from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League. The 22-year-old played 10 games for the Leafs in the 2015-16 season and has 8 points (1 goal, 7 assists) in 29 games for their AHL affiliate.
Being placed on injured reserve will keep Rielly out a minimum of seven days, which will keep the club's top scoring blueliner out until after the NHL All-Star break, but he would be eligible to come off the IR before the game against the New York Islanders on January 31.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs are hoping to seize on the momentum generated from a third period comeback in a 4-3 victory over Ottawa on Saturday as they take on the hottest club in the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche at Air Canada Centre on Monday.
The Leafs rallied from a 3-1 deficit with three goals from Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Connor Carrick to register their first regulation win since December 28.
Toronto will be without Morgan Rielly for the second straight game, as the club’s top scoring blueliner did not take Monday’s morning skate and was described as being “day-to-day” by head coach Mike Babcock. The club only skated with six defensemen this morning, which likely means that the three pairings used in Ottawa will remain unchanged against the Avs.
With only three games until the All-Star break, it is possible that the Leafs medical staff will hold Rielly out of road games against Chicago and Dallas before the break to give the defenseman almost two weeks of recovery time from his unspecified upper-body injury.
Frederik Andersen, who made only 15 saves for the victory over the Sens, will make his 10th straight start for Toronto, while Jonathan Bernier goes for Colorado.
Bernier has won eight straight in relief of the injured Varlamov and has a 1.47 GAA and .954 save percentage during that span.
The Avs have won nine games in a row and are surprisingly in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race after trading Matt Duchene to the Senators and with starting goalie Semyon Varlamov out injured. Their top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog have combined for 139 points this season and were responsible for three goals in a 4-3 overtime victory over the Leafs last month.
MacKinnon was named the NHL’s First Star on Monday after scoring four goals and two assists last week and the 22-year-old is second only to Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov in league scoring.
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Some interesting tidbits over the weekend regarding the Leafs and the approaching trade deadline.
In his “Slap Shots” column, the NY Post’s
Larry Brooks ponders the possibility of the Rangers shopping team captain Ryan McDonagh with the club holding onto the last wild card spot by their fingernails and both Chris Kreider and Kevin Shattenkirk out injured.
Brooks believes that it is "more conceivable that a party such as the Rangers might be able to pry (William) Nylander away as part of a blockbuster that would send a defenseman as stout as McDonagh the other way."
Such a deal would fly in the face of the conventional wisdom that the Leafs will not trade any of their young core group for a defenseman, even one as good as McDonagh.
The 28-year-old has a lot of mileage on him, but he is a legitimate top pairing blueliner with playoff experience and would help Toronto’s back end out immeasurably, but McDonagh only has a year left before becoming an unrestricted free agent, while Nylander is under control for another four seasons. Those factors put the odds of this happening at slim-to-none.
On Hockey Night in Canada’s Saturday Headlines,
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman pondered whether the Leafs recent struggles and frustrations may result in GM Lou Lamoriello making some roster moves.
Toronto have a number of players becoming restricted and unrestricted free agents next summer and Friedman indicated that during his tenure in New Jersey, when there were “conflicting agendas” in the locker room, that usually resulted in players being sent elsewhere.
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The Toronto Marlies set a club-record eight-game winning streak against Binghamton on Saturday, but that streak came to an end on Sunday with a 1-0 shootout loss to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
In the game, defenseman Timothy Liljegren left the game in the third period after being checked by former NHLer Steve Bernier. The Leafs 2017 first round pick did not return to the game.
“(Liljegren was) just banged up. We’ll have to see how he is.” Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “We’ve got a good chunk of time here before we play once again. We’ll give him some time to settle in but it doesn’t appear to be anything too serious at this stage.”
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