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Kerfoot out indefinitely, Spezza gets another chance; Leafs vs. Bruins

November 15, 2019, 5:52 PM ET [466 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs have been plagued by injuries to key players throughout training camp and the first quarter of the regular season and have fallen victim to that pesky bug once again, as the club announced on Friday that center Alex Kerfoot will be out indefinitely after undergoing surgery to repair facial dental fractures.

Kerfoot suffered the injury in last week’s 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings and played in pain for the last four games before reporting discomfort to the Leafs medical staff on Wednesday in Long Island, after which it was deemed necessary to have the damage to his face and teeth repaired surgically.

The 25-year-old has eight points (five goals, three assists) in 20 games with the Leafs this season and did an effective job moving up in the lineup to take the place of John Tavares when he was out last month.

Kerfoot marks the fifth major injury to the Toronto roster in the first six weeks. Tavares missed three weeks with a broken finger, defenseman Travis Dermott was out for a month recovering from off-season shoulder surgery, and winger Zach Hyman returned on Wednesday after off-season knee surgery.

The latest injury comes on the heels of the loss of Mitch Marner, who is expected to be unavailable for a minimum of four weeks after suffering a high ankle sprain last Saturday.



The burden of replacing Kerfoot on Friday against the Boston Bruins at Scotiabank Arena will go to veteran Jason Spezza, who was scratched after his best performance against Philadelphia on November 2 and was demoted to the fourth line and limited to nine minutes in the Leafs 5-4 loss in Chicago last Sunday.

“(Playing sporadically) is a new situation, but I make sure I put the time in on the days I’m not playing.”Spezza said on Friday. “I think it’s important, because when you get a chance like this to play, you have to be sharp. There’s no way to stay sharp other than be on the ice and that’s what I tried to do and now I’m going to have a chance to play.”

The Bruins have lost their last four games (0-2-2) and have their own share of injuries with John Moore, Kevan Miller, Karson Kuhlman, Brett Ritchie, David Backes, Jake DeBrusk, Torey Krug and Zach Senyshyn out, but still lead the Atlantic Division with an 11-3-4 record (26 points) and have the most dangerous line in hockey (Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak) leading the way.

“They are good without (the puck) and they are good with it. They are conscious of the team work ethic with (Zdeno) Chara and Bergeron and their ability to check the puck back.” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said. “They’re not big guys, but they play heavy, they’ve got crowbars for sticks, and they compete hard, they like winning, and obviously they think they’re good….and they are.”

The Bruins will go with Tuukka Rask (7-2-2, 2.16 GAA, .926 save percentage) in goal, while Frederik Andersen will make his 16th start of the season.


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