Leafs Head Coach Provides Official Update on Max Pacioretty
After Max Pacioretty was forced out of Tuesday's contest, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube provides us with an official update on his status.
Pacioretty returned to the lineup after being made a healthy scratch in back-to-back contests against the Los Angeles Kings and the New York Rangers. He tallied a goal in his first game back against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but was forced out of their contest the following day against Columbus on Tuesday.
Pacioretty recorded 2 PIMs but no shots or points in 9:58 TOI before departing with what the Maple Leafs deemed as lower-body injury. After the game, Berube didn't have many answers regarding his injury but he said they would find out the following day.
Then, yesterday, Nick Alberga reported that the injury didn't sound serious and he was being labelled as day-to-day. It seems the sentiment rings true as Berube officially labelled the veteran with a day-to-day injury on Thursday, meaning he'll be out for tonight's game against the St. Louis Blues.
After a strong pre-season turned his PTO into a standard contract, Pacioretty has tallied 2 goals in 5 contests to go along with 7 shots on goal, a plus-2 rating, 12 hits to 3 blocked shots, all while averaging 11:15 TOI with some power play time.
His presence is felt in the bottom-6 and second power play unit, so if he is out awhile, the Leafs will need to find a way to shore things up on the fly. Expect David Kampf to return to the lineup in Pacioretty's absence.
