With Oliver Ekman-Larsson hurt, Maple Leafs to go with five defencemen vs. Montreal
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The Maple Leafs will be short-staffed against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
The Leafs will go with five defencemen versus the Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena after Oliver Ekman-Larsson was hurt during Toronto’s overtime win in Tampa Bay against the Lightning on Wednesday.
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With Oliver Ekman-Larsson hurt, Maple Leafs to go with five defencemen vs. Montreal Back to video
“Maybe I’ll suit up and play back there,” Leafs coach Craig Berube jokingly said after the team practised on Friday at the Ford Performance Centre. “It’s always challenging, but we played games where we’ve lost a D early in the game and you play with five.
“It’s important that our forwards do a good job of helping our D out and making sure that they get back quick for breakouts and things like that, make the game easy on them as much as possible.
“Not getting extended shifts in the D zone and tiring your defence out, that will be a big part of the game.”
Already without defencemen Jake McCabe (undisclosed) and Jan Hakanpaa (knee), the Leafs don’t have space under the salary cap to recall a defenceman from the Toronto Marlies.
Under rules in the collective bargaining agreement, after having played one man short for one game, the Leafs will have the option of recalling a defenceman on an emergency basis for their game on Sunday in Carolina against the Hurricanes.
Centre David Kampf will miss his third consecutive game with an upper-body injury.
A Leafs win in regulation against the Canadiens, who play in Ottawa against the Senators on Friday night, would clinch home-ice advantage in at least the first round for Toronto.
Berube didn’t specify Ekman-Larsson’s injury, but said the veteran is day to day. Berube didn’t confirm as much, but don’t expect Ekman-Larsson to play in Carolina as the Leafs complete their 16th and final back-to-back set of the regular season.
During overtime in Tampa, Ekman-Larsson fell awkwardly after he was stopped on a breakaway by Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Ekman-Larsson made his way back up the ice, but didn’t get another shift before Matthew Knies scored the winning goal.
Berube said he expects that McCabe, who has missed the past three games with an undisclosed injury, will return to game action before the playoffs commence. McCabe did not practise on Friday and won’t play on Saturday.
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Keep in mind, too, that the Leafs won’t practise on Monday as they will be coming off the back-to-back set. Their next practice is scheduled for Wednesday, after they play on Tuesday night on the road against the Buffalo Sabres.
Perhaps at the earliest, we don’t see Ekman-Larsson or McCabe until the regular-season finale on Thursday, when the Leafs play host to the Detroit Red Wings.
As it pertains to the defence corps and the final run to the Stanley Cup playoffs, the current situation is nothing close to ideal. At a time when Berube and his staff want to see the players put the finishing touches on their play before the post-season tournament starts, the club is forced to go with a patchwork look on the blue line.
Philippe Myers, a healthy scratch when every defenceman is healthy, surely will play a lot more against the Canadiens than he did in Tampa. Myers had just 11 shifts against the Lighting for seven minutes 19 seconds of ice time, his lowest total in his 32 games this season.
If Berube feels the need to do so, he could use Mitch Marner for a few five-on-five shifts on the blue line. When Marner played the odd shift on defence under former coach Sheldon Keefe, he didn’t look out of place.
Hakanpaa, who has been watching with a keen eye as he tries to get his knee trouble to a point where he could play again, figured there shouldn’t be much of an adjustment for Morgan Rielly, Brandon Carlo, Chris Tanev, Simon Benoit and Myers in playing short in the defence corps.
“It’s different, (but) I don’t think it’s anything any of them haven’t seen,” Hakanpaa said. “It’s a little strange going into the game, but they all been there before, so I think they’re going to handle it good.”
At forward, of course, the Leafs have no similar issues. They haven’t missed Kampf and Max Pacioretty has been practising like he is ready to step into the lineup at a moment’s notice.
Berube gave away nothing when he was asked whether he expects Pacorietty and Hakanpaa will be available once the playoffs begin.
“That I don’t know,” Berube said. “I don’t have that answer for you. They’re still working their way through things. That’s all I know on that.”
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