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UPDATE - Per Pierre LeBrun, the Toronto - Vancouver game has been postponed. The Canucks had more positive cases after returning from San Jose on Thursday. Elliotte Friedman and Chris Johnston are reporting that the game on Sunday vs. Seattle has also been postponed.
The Toronto Maple Leafs had been relatively unscathed by COVID-19 this season, but the spike of positives due to the more transmissible Omicron variant has hit the club in the midst of their four-game Western road swing.
After practicing in Vancouver following the postponement of their game in Calgary on Thursday, the Leafs reported on Friday that linemates Alex Kerfoot and John Tavares were placed in the league’s protocol. Later that evening that number increased to four, with recently reinstated Jason Spezza and Wayne Simmonds heading to the list.
Toronto will take on the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Saturday in the first of back-to-back games and head coach Sheldon Keefe faces the challenge of putting together a lineup with two of his four centers out.
The Leafs recalled forward Alex Steeves and defenseman Carl Dahlstrom from the AHL Marlies (who have been shut down through Tuesday after five players tested positive), and with Tavares, Spezza, and Kerfoot (who is usually the first option when Toronto is short-handed up the middle) unavailable, Keefe will likely have Auston Matthews, David Kampf, Pierre Engvall, and either Steeves or William Nylander available to play center and insert Nick Ritchie into the lineup. It is expected that Jack Campbell will get the start against Vancouver (winners of six games in a row under new head coach Bruce Boudreau) and that Petr Mrazek will go in Seattle against the Kraken on Sunday.
With the number of cases going up and the Leafs not heading out West again this season (except for making up the Calgary game), it is likely that they will go to great lengths to get these back-to-back games in, but their final home game before the Christmas break vs. St. Louis on Thursday afternoon may be in jeopardy with the province of Ontario limited fan capacity to 50%.
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— Norman James (@IamNormanJames) April 26, 2021
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