Mitch Marner touches on his relationship with Jake Muzzin following the hit that injured him

The speculation comes from an exchange that the two had moments after the play that appeared heated. Marner exited the ice following the confrontation and has been out of action and on LTIR since December 3rd.

Marner spoke with the media following practice on Monday and assured everyone who may have been concerned about the incident that the two are on really good terms and that Muzzin is in fact "one of his best friends".

"We had some nice words about it, but it's back to loving each other and joking about it. It was just an unlucky bounce, and we recovered pretty quickly."

Hockey players are a resilient bunch, and while you certainly never like to hear about one teammate injuring another at practice, these things do happen in a contact sport sometimes, and it's important to understand that these guys are competitors and that in the heat of battle, accidents happen - even in practice.

Marner has missed 6 games due to the injury, but returned to practice on Sunday, following the holiday break, and projects to be ready to go when the Leafs resume play in January.

Typically, players who are on LTIR are not eligible to come off until they've missed 10 games and 24 days, but fortunately for the Leafs, the postponed games count towards those 10 games during the pandemic.