Just when it looked like the Leafs could be ready to turn a corner with the midway point of the regular season fast approaching, the injury bug has struck again.
In a big way, too.
Dakota Joshua won’t play against New Jersey. In fact, it was revealed that he’s still in Detroit getting further observation after taking a hit along the boards that affected his kidney. It doesn’t sound good. Chris Tanev is going to miss some time, too, with a lower body injury unrelated to what has kept him out for parts of this season. On top of that, Craig Berube deemed Auston Matthews a game-time decision after the captain blocked a shot in the second period of Sunday night’s 3-2 OT loss against the Red Wings.
Needless to say, we had plenty to discuss to kick off the Tuesday edition of Leafs Morning Take as David Pagnotta filled in for Jay Rosehill as co-host. All in all, it’s been that type of season for the Maple Leafs. They just can’t get on track. With that in mind, we did break down the trade market a bit: Columbus traded Yegor Chinakhov and it was reported that Edmonton’s open to finding a new home for Andrew Mangiapane. For the record, the Leafs were in on the Bolton native in free agency last July before he ultimately chose the Oilers. Toronto doesn’t seem like a fit this time around, though.
After we got all that out of our system, we began to preview the second of three meetings with Sheldon Keefe’s Devils. Lost in the noise of all the injury hoopla is how vital this game is with respect to the standings. Just two points separates the two teams in the standings. One thing’s for sure, the Leafs lineup looks a lot different without the likes of potentially Matthews and definitively William Nylander, who will miss his second straight game due to a lower body injury. The Leafs are 2-0-1 in three outings since firing Marc Savard. We’ll see what they have in them. Desperation will be the name of the game.
Then, free agent head coach Pete DeBoer stopped by for a very insightful interview. Firstly, the 57-year-old hit on Toronto’s injury bug and the approach from a coaching standpoint when a team’s hit with a rash of injuries. Furthermore, he addressed Elliotte Friedman’s reporting from the weekend that shared that DeBoer reached out to Berube through a friend to shut down speculation that he was eyeing the Toronto job. He broke down why he felt it was important to do that. Over and above all that, ahead of Canada’s Olympic roster announcement, DeBoer, who will be on Jon Cooper’s bench in Milan, weighed in on the process to pick the team. It was cool to hear him talk about all the internal debate behind the scenes. Lastly, he hit on the arena venue in Italy, and that whole saga.
Jay Rosehill will be back in the mix for the Wednesday edition of Leafs Morning Take, our last show of 2025 and our last show of the week. We’ll recap this Leafs/Devils and also react in real-time to Canada’s Olympic roster reveal.
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