Jake Muzzin Injury Puts Wrench into Maple Leafs’ Season Hopes

The news yesterday on Maple Leafs' D Jake Muzzin was about as bad as NHL fans could imagine - out indefinitely because of a cervical spine injury. 

The team won’t even re-assess his injury until late February. At that point, Leafs GM Kyle Dubas will decide whether Muzzin can even come back (his career might be done), and if he’s not coming back, take the $5.625 million cap hit, sitting on long-term injury reserve according to Cap Friendly, and go find a replacement for the playoffs.

Besides being the most physical defenceman on the team, and a key cog on the back end during last year’s playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Muzzin is a much-loved dressing-room presence and a team leader.

So that leaves a rather gaping hole on defence going into tonight’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins (in Pittsburgh, 7 p.m. ET). Then came yesterday’s news that defenceman TJ Brodie has an oblique injury and is out for two weeks. Brodie, with a plus/minus of zero, is one of the team’s more reliable defencemen. So that’s another hole.

The team called up Mac Hollowell and forward Pontus Holmberg from the Toronto Marlies for tonight’s game. And D Rasmus Sandin (-3, with four points over 16 games) and D Timothy Liljegren (who just re-joined the lineup from injury) are going to get more ice time with the injuries. That might be too much to ask of them.

For a team that sits second in the Atlantic Division, behind the Boston Bruins, with an 8-5-3 record, it still doesn’t feel close to a team running on all cylinders, when looking at the firepower up front. In their 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks Saturday night, their last game, Auston Matthews scored on the power play (he now has seven goals in 16 games), with Mitch Marner assisting. Marner extended his assist and point streak to nine games, where he has posted 13 points (2G, 11A). 

Marner and Matthews, together forming one of the league’s top units last season, were split up Saturday night, with Marner playing alongside C John Tavares on the second line. Matthews has just two even-strength goals so far this season so Leafs' coach Sheldon Keefe is looking for a spark there. We’ll have to see if Keefe keeps things that way tonight. The Pens best stay out of the penalty box, though – the Leafs have the sixth-best power play in the NHL, at 26.4 per cent.

Pittsburgh is seventh in the Metropolitan Division with a record of 6-6-3, but no team that’s led by Sidney Crosby (16 points in 15 games so far, and a minus one) should be taken lightly. The Pens beat the Leafs 4-2 Friday in Toronto.

Another big knuckleball is the return of Matt Murray in goal tonight for the Leafs, his first game back after being out extended time because of an adductor injury, playing against the team he won some Cups with in the past. Dubas said Monday with all the injuries, this is an opportunity for some players, including Jordie Benn on defence (who scored the winner against the Canucks), to show what they’re worth. We’ll see how it goes.

Tonight’s game is the second of three matchups between the Leafs and Penguins. Toronto will visit Pittsburgh on Nov. 26 for their final matchup of the campaign. Following tonight’s game, the Leafs return home for a three-game homestand.