After practice today some news came out about the banged up Maple Leafs who were missing yesterday.
Nikita Zaitsev
Zaitsev is confirmed out with an upper body injury. Its speculated he had his bell rung early in Sundays game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. He left early intothe game and our greatest fears have been realized: Nikita Zaitsev will not play in game one of the playoffs.
Martin Marincin will take his place on defense for now. He has not played since the Maple Leafs were routed 7-2 by the Florida Panthers.
Tyler Bozak
Bozak was back on the ice today in practice and will play tomorrow night.
Frederik Andersen
Andersen is the confirmed starter for game one. He missed the final game against Columbus after being pulled by team doctors in Saturday's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Reminder: Tom Sestito is garbage.
Roman Polak
Polak is expected to play tomorrow night. He resumed practicing fully with the team today.
Henny has the pairings from practice:
Leaf pairings as of now:
— Paul Hendrick (@HennyTweets) April 12, 2017
Rielly-Hunwick
Gardiner-Polak
Marincin-Carrick
Zaitsev not available for game 1. #tmltalk
In Marlies news, Brooks Laich is officially done with the Maple Leafs and the Marlies. Todd Crocker says he has returned to California after having elbow surgery. His contract expires on June 30th.
It’s going to be a battle no matter who’s in and who’s out. Mike Babcock spoke with reporters and this to say:
Babcock: "I can promise you we're going to be prepared ... We're going to be a real hard out. We're coming to play."
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) April 12, 2017
Babcock: "When you're young you think experience is overrated. When you're old you think experience is everything ..."
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) April 12, 2017
Babcock: " ... lots of young teams have won so let's just find a way."
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) April 12, 2017
We’ll follow up if any more news about Zaitsev comes out this afternoon.
