Surprising Turn of Events in Toronto Leads to Maple Leafs Making Late Roster Change Against Preds
The Maple Leafs have been forced to make a late lineup change against the Nashville Predators after Jake McCabe suffers an unfortunate setback.
During Saturday's meeting with the Tampa Bay Lightning, there was a bit of an injury scare involving Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe, who took a puck to the head/neck area, going down clutching his head, with the officials blowing play dead instantly so the trainers could tend to the injured defenseman.
McCabe sat out on Monday against the Chicago Blackhawks for what the Leafs called "precautionary reasons", but joined the team for a full practice session on Tuesday.
Following Tuesday's practice, McCabe mentioned that he was feeling good and he appeared earmarked to return to the lineup on Wednesday against Nashville. However, in an interesting and concerning development, McCabe will not suit up tonight, according to Leafs head coach Craig Berube.
Berube told the media after Wednesday's morning skate that McCabe didn't feel quite right, and would be held out as a result.
Erring on the side of caution is definitely the play here. Head injuries can be scary and the effects aren't always instantly noticeable.
With McCabe coming out of the lineup, the Leafs will likely re-insert Conor Timmins into the lineup and shuffle things around on the blueline to give themselves more optimal pairings under the circumstances.
Philippe Myers was expected to pair with Simon Benoit tonight, so it remains to be seen if that pairing will stay together, which would mean that Timmins would play a little higher in the lineup.
We should have a better idea of how things will shake out when the teams submit their official rosters for tonight's game ahead of puck drop.
