Already without Timothy Liljegren and John Klingberg at the time, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost defenseman Mark Giordano early in the first period of their game against the Florida Panthers on November 29th. Giordano suffered a broken finger and had been listed as week-to-week.
The Buds hadn't placed Gio on LTIR, leading some to believe that he wouldn't miss as much time as was anticipated, however, the Leafs have now placed Giordano on LTIR meaning that his injury could be more significant than originally expected. He was projected to miss four-to-six weeks with the injury, but that could be longer.
For those unaware, when a player is on LTIR, they have to miss 10 games/24 days before being activated. A player can be placed on LTIR with a retroactive date, but there is no indication that the Leafs placed him on LTIR retroactively.
In 20 games with the Leafs before his injury, Giordano had 1 goal and five assists, but was an integral part of the Leafs' penalty kill and was playing top-four minutes in the absence of both Liljegren and Klingberg. His loss was supposed to leave a large hole to fill on the blueline, but between Max Lajoie, Simon Benoit and William Lagesson, all three have played very well in his absence.
