Massive Ryan O'Reilly update!
Some excellent news to announce on Sautrday as the prize of the trade deadline for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ryan O'Reilly, is travelling with the team on their current road trip and was seen at today's optional skate. The Maple Leafs enter the belly of the beast in Raleigh, North Carolina to face off against the 100-point-Carolina Hurricanes.
O'Reilly suffered a broken finger and has been out of the lineup since the 4th of March in a game against the Vancouver Canucks. He was hit in the hand by a shot from Auston Matthews and, after undergoing surgery, he was ruled out for 4 weeks.
In 8 games since joining the Maple Leafs, O'Reilly had 3 goals and 5 points, averaged 15:46 TOI, had some good chemistry with John Tavares and Mitch Marner, and gave the Leafs the option of a very competent and dangerous third line centre if they needed to spread things around. He recorded an assist in his first game before scoring a hat-trick 2 games later but was in the midst of a 5-game point-less streak at the time of the injury.
Now that his timeline for return is inching closer and that he's currently with the team on their lengthy road-trip, the Leafs are hoping that the veteran forward can return to the lineup for either their game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on the 4th of April or their next game on the 6th of April against the Boston Bruins.
With only 11 games left in the regular season - 10 once the puck drops tonight - both the Leafs and O'Reilly would like to get things back on track, have the former Blues captain return to game-action, and get his legs going before their much anticipated first round matchup against the vaunted Tampa Bay Lightning.
| POLL | ||
MARS 25 | 990 ANSWERS Massive Ryan O'Reilly update! Is Ryan O'Reilly the difference-maker the Leafs are hoping he'll be in their round one series against Tampa? | ||
| Yes | 655 | 66.2 % |
| No | 101 | 10.2 % |
| We'll just have to wait and see | 234 | 23.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
