Dave Litman
After a strong start to November, the Toronto Maple Leafs stumbled in a 5-3 loss to the Boston Bruins Saturday night. They also experienced injury updates of two differing extremes on Saturday.
Their newest concern is a familiar one, as Scott Laughton, who was playing only his second game of the season, was hit by a Mack truck in the form of Boston Bruins defender Nikita Zadorov. The 6’7”, 255-pound behemoth’s elbow caught Laughton in the head during the monstrous hit.
The Leafs forward appeared to be knocked senseless, and did not return to the game. (It was nice to see a teammate, Bobby McMann, come immediately to defend Laughton’s honor, by dropping the gloves, even though he was out of his weight class with Zadorov).
Head coach Craig Berube has confirmed that Laughton will not play in Toronto’s game Sunday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. It’s being called an upper body injury.
It’s been a brutal start to the year for Laughton. He was playing well in training camp and hoping to redeem himself in his hometown after a mostly disappointing two-month run last season, but injuries have derailed his season. He was acquired by the Leafs in a deadline deal with the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for a first round pick. A preseason injury wiped out the first four weeks of this season for him… And now this.
Leafs get good news on Chris Tanev
Earlier in the day, the team got some good news on the injury front, however. Defenseman Chris Tanev, who was stretchered off the ice just a week ago, was already back skating. This is an especially positive development considering the seriousness of the situation after his head and neck snapped back violently on a hit from behind from Matvei Michkov. This came in his first game back from a concussion-related absence of 10 days.
Berube said that his top defender was “progressing in the right direction.” Nevertheless, he missed his third straight game Saturday night with this latest setback, and will not play Sunday. He missed four games in his earlier absence.
Fellow blueliner Brandon Carlo also had a positive review of how Tanev is doing. “Every time that I’ve talked to him since, he’s seemed just like himself, so that’s what you like to see. He’s got bright eyes and a bushy tail in the morning.”
