Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe says forward Mitch Marner is still out and did not skate today. He told the journalists, “It hasn’t been responding the way they had intended. So we are just taking a step back with it.” Following the announcement of the setback, it was revealed that Marner will not travel on the two-game road trip. Marner was hurt on March 7.
According to GM Brad Treliving, the injury is likely minor, but we want to show respect for it. Hopefully he’ll return sooner rather than later. That message was slightly different from the one sent by the coach.
According to Keefe, Marner is “day-to-day from being day-to-day”. It’s unclear what that means, but Keefe implied there was a setback. The belief is that Marner skated, but he wasn’t feeling good enough to practice and may have irritated anything further, so the Maple Leafs decided not to push it. When asked if Leafs fans should be concerned, Nick Kypreos responded, “I would poop my pants if I was a Leafs fan right now.” He then observed:
“Whatever it is, it isn’t good enough for team practice. Why will you rush him back? He has an outside shot at playing versus Edmonton on Saturday, so we’ll see how things go in the next three days.”
This is not good news for the Maple Leafs, who will need Marner to contend in the playoffs this season. He’s an important element of their offense, and if something like this continues throughout the season, how successful will he be when it counts the most?
In 62 games this season, Marner has 25 goals and 76 points.
Marner and Lyubushikin remain out with injuries for the Maple Leafs.
He also mentioned that defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin is unwell and will most likely miss tomorrow’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
