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The Toronto Maple Leafs hoped they might be free and clear of COVID issues after as many as 15 players tested positive with the Omicron variant from mid-to-late December, but on Monday Leafs forward Auston Matthews and assistant coach Dean Chynoweth did not participate in practice at the Ford Performance Centre on Monday for precautionary reasons.
Matthews, who was named the NHL’s first star of the month for December after scoring 10 goals in seven games, went pointless in the Leafs 6-0 victory over Ottawa on Saturday and according to head coach Sheldon Keefe his status for the club’s next game against Edmonton on Wednesday is up in the air.
"No symptoms for either guy, but they both tested positive on their rapid this morning." Keefe said. "We'll just await the results of their PCR that won't come in until (Tuesday) morning. There have been some instances where those those rapid positives have been false, so that's why at this point it's just precautionary that they were removed."
Beyond the ordinary ★️@AM34 | #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/RiTzdJewxb
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) January 2, 2022
Toronto benefited from offense from unusual places in their first game in 18 days, as Justin Holl and Ilya Mikheyev scored their first goals of the season short-handed 27 seconds apart to give the club an early lead. TJ Brodie added his second of the year in the middle frame, Mikheyev added a power-play marker, William Nylander tallied twice in the third period, and Jack Campbell made 23 stops for his fourth shutout of the season.
“I thought we did a good job early in the game, not giving (Ottawa) any life or giving them any opportunities to get towards our net.… Keefe said. “The way it worked out to get those two shorthanded goals were big and to get those contributions from our defense, great for Holl to score such an important goal to get us going. Brodie’s goal and his contributions throughout. I just thought we had a good effort from our defence as a whole tonight.…
With Matthews absent, John Tavares shifted to the top line with Michael Bunting and Mitch Marner, Alex Kerfoot moved from wing to center Mikheyev and Nylander, Pierre Engvall was promoted to the checking line with David Kampf and Ondrej Kase, while Nick Ritchie (a healthy scratch on Saturday) was inserted on the fourth line with Jason Spezza and Wayne Simmonds.
Intense drill at practice. Some nice goals in this one including Bunting going bar down. And Marner seen here scoring with stick extended in the air for a while. pic.twitter.com/YhWhWN9MY3
— David Alter (@dalter) January 3, 2022
On defense, Timothy Liljegren returned to the ice after being asymptomatic for his stretch on COVID protocol and skated on the extra pairing with Alex Biega. Jake Muzzin spoke with the media and indicated that his scratch on Saturday was more precautionary and the veteran blueliner expects to be in the lineup vs. the Oilers on Wednesday.
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Lot’s of â¤ï¸ for the 💙ðŸ¤
— Norman James (@IamNormanJames) April 26, 2021
Convo on Podcast.#theleafsconvo https://t.co/Xdn3CDLVCI
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