Max Pacioretty Officially Healthy Scratched by the Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs surprisingly decided to make Max Pacioretty a healthy scratch moments before puck drop against the Los Angeles Kings.
In a surprising move, just a day after Pacioretty took reps with the top power play unit at practice for the Maple Leafs, head coach Craig Berube has confirmed via the official roster submission ahead of Wednesday's game against the Kings that Pacioretty will indeed be in the press box and will not dress for the mid-week game.
William Nylander had been absent from practice on back-to-back days after coming down with a flu-like illness, which also impacted former Leafs captain John Tavares, preventing him from playing in the team's home opener over the weekend.
Originally, it appeared as though Nylander would miss tonight's game against Los Angeles, but following practice on Wednesday, Berube had informed the media in Toronto that Nylander would be a game-time decision. After taking warm-ups, Nylander was cleared to return, leading to Pacioretty coming out of the lineup.
Pacioretty has dealt with multiple significant injuries in recent seasons, missing an enormous amount of time while recovering from back-to-back Achilles injuries. The soon to be 36-year-old has played in all 3 games for the Maple Leafs thus far, so perhaps the Leafs taking him out of the lineup as opposed to someone else is more about controlling his workload than anything else.
It's doubtful that Pacioretty coming out of the lineup has anything to do with the organization being displeased with his play. The former Canadiens captain has notched 1 goal across his 3 appearances this season and has been a welcome addition to a team who has had a longstanding need for depth scoring. I'd imagine he'll be right back in the lineup this weekend, but we'll have to see how things look as the week progresses.
