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With less than two weeks until the playoffs start, the Maple Leafs don’t want to fret that one of their best defencemen could miss significant time.
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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, and coach Craig Berube was at his most elusive where a prognosis is concerned.
The “day-to-day” designation that Berube prefers has more often than not translated 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, adding he wasn’t sure how the injury even occurred.
McCabe did collide with a linesman and was involved in a hit with Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe before departing with 1:10 remaining in the third.
“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.’”
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Philippe Myers will take McCabe’s roster spot and partner with Simon Benoit as Berube moves things around while Tanev joins Oliver Ekman-Larsson. That puts more emphasis on the Brandon Carlo-Morgan Rielly tandem to keep improving.
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McCabe played close to 25 minutes on Wednesday and is a plus-23 this season. Centre David Kampf, who didn’t play Wednesday’s third period with an upper-body injury, also was not around Friday and will miss Saturday’s game, Berube said.
Nick Robertson will take Kampf’s place, though third-liner Scott Laughton was taking a lot of draws at practice on Friday.
While the Leafs can help their first-place chances in the Atlantic Division with a win on Saturday, leading the Tampa Bay Lightning by three points, the Blue Jackets have had their number this season.
Columbus has won both meetings by a combined score of 11-3, though in each game Toronto was using farmhand netminder Dennis Hildeby.
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