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Consider the next game or two a full-on fire drill for the Maple Leafs.
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How prepared are they to unexpectedly lose one of their best defencemen, should it happen in a playoff series and not in a regular season mishap?
They play the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night without Jake McCabe, who will miss some time with an undisclosed injury.
“Huge part of the team, he embodies sort of what we are, and how we want to play,” said regular partner Chris Tanev after an optional morning skate. “A great skater, smart and moves the puck.”
Philippe Myers takes McCabe’s place, though Tanev will partner Oliver Ekman-Larsson, while Myers joins Simon Benoit. Up front, Nick Robertson replaces fourth-line centre David Kampf, who has an upper body injury.
Coach Craig Berube provided another lineup ripple when he confirmed that Anthony Stolarz will make a consecutive start, instead of Joseph Woll per the usual rotation.
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“I liked his last game a lot (Stolarz’s 29 saves against Florida) and just think getting him in another game, then the back-to-back (Woll will play against Florida or Tampa Bay next week), I’m just trying to find a little consistency here.”
But Berube, Stolarz and the Leafs know they can’t sleep on the Jackets, who come to town in playoff survival mode. With eight games to go, two teams to pass for a wildcard spot and coming off a 7-3 loss to Colorado, they need to complete a three-game sweep of Toronto and finish the schedule on a streak.
The Leafs need the two points to stay in first place in the Atlantic Division.
“Hungry, desperate and they’ve kicked our ass twice,” Tanev said of two Jackets’ wins earlier this season by a combined 11-3 score. “They’re very good offensively, very good off the rush and have one of the best defenceman in the league in (Zach) Werenski. He controls the pace of the game and we have to do a good job making sure we’re on the right side of him.”
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The Jackets have been just about everyone’s favourite underdog this season. They’ve dealt with the terrible loss of star forward Johnny Gaudreau just before training camp, he and brother Matthew were killed by an alleged reckless driver.
There have been in-season injuries and other team setbacks, but they remain in the wildcard hunt.
“Perseverance,” said head coach Dean Evason. “They’ve handled a lot of adversity all year and we’re going through some adversity now.
“What they’ve shown us and each other is that they’ve stuck together, competed together and got each other’s backs no matter what the situation is, early in the season or where we’re at right now.”
Evason is re-activating former Leaf winger James van Riemsdyk after a few games in the stands.
And while the hockey world is fixated on Alex Ovechkin about to pass Wayne Gretzky’s goal record of 894, Tanev has a chance to break a different type of standard. His next shot block will surpass Carl Gunnarsson’s Leaf single season record of 176 since the stat has been kept by the NHL.
No, he doesn’t expect Gunnarsson to be at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.
“I did not know that,” said a bemused Tanev said of the record. “It is what it is.”
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