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The Toronto Maple Leafs had a weekend where their stars were front and center at the NHL’s All-Star festivities, with Auston Matthews team winning the 3-on-3 game over Connor McDavid’s squad (for which he was named NHL First Star of the Week), but now the club has to get back to what actually matters, and that is the remainder of the regular season, starting with Monday’s match against the New York Islanders at Scotiabank Arena.
The Leafs are coming off a sweep of a home-and-home series of the Winnipeg Jets, but will be facing an Islanders squad under new coach Patrick Roy who are just six points in back of Toronto and Detroit in the Eastern Conference wildcard race.
Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe provided an update on some key injuries coming out of the break. Center David Kampf was injured before the break and an MRI revealed an undisclosed issue that will require more time off the ice. His absence paired with the loss of Calle Jarnkrok to a broken knuckle severely depletes Toronto’s bottom six. Pontus Holmberg will shift from wing to replace Kampf at fourth-line center, Noah Gregor will move up to the third line alongside Max Domi and Nick Robertson, and Bobby McMann has been activated from injured reserve to play with Holmberg and Ryan Reaves.
With there being less depth up front, the Leafs will have to depend more on their core group to carry the offensive burden and take more of a role as penalty killers since both Jarnkrok and Kampf are part of that special team unit.
The news regarding goalie Joseph Woll was also not encouraging. The netminder suffered a high ankle sprain on December 7 in Ottawa and has been skating in recent days, but the 25-year-old is not ready to return to action after missing two months.
"He's not anywhere close to us considering him for game action," Keefe said. "It's more ramping up towards full participation in practice and then making a determination from there."
The Leafs are now in a situation where they will have to hope that a rejuvenated Ilya Samsonov has shaken off his first-half struggles and that he and Martin Jones can bridge the gap until Woll is fully healthy and ready to return at some point in February. If not, you can add that to a growing list of areas of concern for GM Brad Treliving.
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