Injured Maple Leafs defenceman Jake McCabe could miss more than just one game

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Less than two weeks until the playoffs start, the Maple Leafs don’t want to be fretting that one of their best defencemen could miss significant time.

But there was no sign of Jake McCabe at Friday’s practice, two days after leaving the 3-2 win over Florida with an undisclosed injury. Coach Craig Berube was at his most elusive where a prognosis is concerned.

The “day-to-day” designation that Berube prefers more often than not translates to several days off the ice. McCabe will be out for at least Saturday’s home game against Columbus.

“I can’t really comment on how long it’s going to be,” Berube said.

The coach insisted he wasn’t sure how the injury occurred, another cause for concern.

McCabe had collided with a linesman and also took a hit from Panthers’ forward Carter Verhaeghe before departing with 1:10 remaining. McCabe, who was also concussed earlier his season, isn’t essential to the plot on Saturday, a non-divisional match, but would be missed next week on the road back-to-back against Florida and Tampa Bay. Those games of the remaining seven will go a long way to deciding if the Leafs keep their first-place perch in the Atlantic.

Toronto has played through absences of forwards Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and John Tavares by spreading out the scoring and forechecking, but if minus McCabe, it’s a whole slew of challenges.

“He does a lot of things for us, a shutdown defenceman with (Chris) Tanev, his physical play, penalty kill, leadership,” Berube said. “He brings a lot. It’s hard to sit here and say ‘Oh, we can replace him.’ ”

Philippe Myers, idle since March 10, will take McCabe’s roster spot, as Simon Benoit’s partner, Berube moving things around Friday with Tanev joining Oliver Ekman-Larsson. That puts more emphasis on the Brandon Carlo-Morgan Rielly tandem to keep improving.

McCabe played close to 25 minutes on Wednesday and is a plus-23 this season. Centre David Kampf, who didn’t play at all in Wednesday’s third period with an upper-body injury, also was not around Friday and will miss Saturday’s game, says Berube.

Winger Nick Robertson will take Kampf’s place, though third-liner Scott Laughton was taking a lot of draws at practice on Friday.

The Blue Jackets had Friday off after being thrashed by Colorado, a result that damaged their already-tenuous playoff hopes. They’ve sagged recently trying to get past the New York Rangers and catch Montreal for the last Eastern Conference wild-card spot.

Columbus, however, has won both this season’s meetings against the Leafs, a combined score of 11-3, though in each game Toronto was using farm hand netminder Dennis Hildeby. Joseph Woll is expected to start as he and Anthony Stolarz keep trying to top each other in the rotation.

“They have big guys who score,” Berube said of Columbus. “(Zach) Werenski is one of the top defencemen in the league in my opinion, transporting the puck, getting involved offensively.

“We have to do a better job of defending and checking this team.”

lhornby@postmedia.com

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