Maple Leafs place Stolarz on IR, make several lineup changes against Buffalo
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The Maple Leafs have placed goaltender Anthony Stolarz on injured reserve.
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And coach Craig Berube wasn’t keen on talking about that development a couple of hours before Toronto played host to the Buffalo Sabres at Scotiabank Arena.
Berube was asked whether the team still feels positive that Stolarz avoided anything serious when he suffered a lower-body injury against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday.
“We’ll get an update on that in couple of days, all right?” Berube said. “I’m not really going to comment on that right now.”
Stolarz’s new status is retroactive to Dec. 12, the night of the injury.
Originally termed as day-to-day by Berube — the favoured prognosis for nearly every injured Leafs player this season, no matter how long he may be out — Stolarz won’t be available until after the Leafs’ game in Dallas on Wednesday. As
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Berube indicated, though, that the Leafs aren’t prepared to say when Stolarz will return.
Berube confirmed several lineup changes for the game against the Sabres, less than 24 hours after the Leafs lost 4-2 in Detroit against the Red Wings.
Goalie Dennis Hildeby will make his third career start in the National Hockey League and first since Oct. 22.
At forward, Nick Robertson and Ryan Reaves will be in the lineup; Fraser Minten and Pontus Holmberg will be scratched.
On defence, Philippe Myers will play and Conor Timmins will be scratched.
Berube knows where the Leafs have to be better on Sunday once the game gets underway just after 5 p.m.
“Rush defence,” Berube said. “Even going back to the Anaheim game, we gave up a few rush chances in the first period and last night we got scored on twice on it. We have to clean that up.
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“It starts in the offensive zone with reloads and more urgency by our forwards, but reading the rush better, coming in our zone, we can’t give up two goals off the rush.”
The Leafs have two wins in their past five games and continue to have trouble scoring on a consistent basis.
For defenceman Jake McCabe, there’s an all-encompassing issue.
“We’re just looking for a good 60 minutes,” McCabe said. “We haven’t really put together a 60-minute hockey game in a little while that we have been proud of, so looking forward to doing that tonight.”
Toronto has a 3-2-1 record in the second game of back-to-back sets. Buffalo, which lost 4-2 in Washington against the Capitals on Saturday night before travelling to Toronto, is 1-4-0 in the second game of back-to-backs.
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The Leafs are 4-6-0 in their past 10 games against the Sabres.
More importantly, Toronto will look to take advantage of a Buffalo team that has not won since Nov. 23, going 0-6-3 in its past 10 games.
The Leafs have an NHL-high 13 wins on home ice (13-4-0) while the Sabres are 5-6-1 on the road.
The Sabres recalled goalie Devon Levi from the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League and he will start in net.
Meanwhile, Wings defenceman Jonatan Berggren was fined by the NHL for cross-checking Leafs forward Connor Dewar on Saturday night.
The incident happened at 10:53 of the second period, and Berggren was assessed a minor penalty for cross-checking. Dewar was not hurt and remained in the game at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
Berggren was fined $2,148.44 US, the maximum allowable under the collective bargaining agreement, the NHL department of player safety announced on Sunday morning.
The money goes to the players’ emergency assistance fund.
The Leafs scored on the Berggren minor, as Mitch Marner set up Auston Matthews for the captain’s 10th goal of the season.
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