First Leafs practice after the bye week leads to a lot of lineup questions tonight against the Islanders
The Toronto Maple Leafs returned to practice Sunday afternoon following their bye week and All-Star break. The four all-stars, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly did not join the rest of the group however. Those four skated separately on another pad at the Leafs practice facility while Sheldon Keefe got the rest of the team back up to speed.
Forward Bobby McMann, who missed the Leafs final game before the break with a lingering issue, returned to practice but was wearing a grey jersey, typically reserved for extras. He was joined in a grey jersey by Pontus Holmberg and Ryan Reaves. Typically, we'd expect to see the trio of grey jerseys out of the lineup against the New York Islanders tomorrow. However, with Calle Jarnkrok injured and another forward absent in David Kampf, the Leafs had McMann, Holmberg and Reaves skating as a trio at practice. They figure to be the 4th line tonight.
With Jarnkrok and Kampf out of the lineup, the penalty killing units will take a considerable hit. The Leafs would be wise to limit the number of penalties they take tonight to an absolute minimum.
In addition to Kampf, Joseph Woll was also not a participant at practice. His absence is notable as Keefe had stated before the bye week that the hope was to have Woll return after the All-Star break. Keefe suggested that Woll's absence had to do with a busy week of work during the bye week, so hopefully that means he's still on track to return sooner than later and hadn't suffered any sort of a setback.
| POLL | ||
5 FEVRIER | 703 ANSWERS First Leafs practice after the bye week leads to a lot of lineup questions tonight against the Islanders Do you think Joseph Woll will end his season with a .920 SV% or better? | ||
| Yes | 427 | 60.7 % |
| No | 276 | 39.3 % |
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