[Johnston] The hits keep coming to the Leafs blue line: Not only did Oliver Ekman-Larsson leave last night’s game with a lower-body issue that is expected to cause him to miss some time, but there’s concern Brandon Carlo tweaked something as well.

28 comments

  4. Honestly lucky break this is happening in an Olympic year. This team needs the Olympic break BADLY.

    At the same time – feel bad for Willy and OEL as it definitely seems more than possible they’re going to miss playing for Sweden. Particularly would feel bad for OEL as this would for sure be his last shot.

  7. Thank god Rielly is okay. Was worried he was playing injured but confirmed just sucks.

  12. Olympic Schedule is reeking havoc on players health. Leafs are getting hit hard, but the condensed schedule is a huge issue for them right now. 0 time to practice, 0 time to get healthy. They are really scratching and clawing their way to Feb 4th.

  16. They need to not be buying at this deadline. Try to make the playoffs with the roster they have, but don’t be selling off assets for a rental when this is clearly not the year. Retool for next year.

  18. Do the Leafs practice near an electric substation too or what?

    Being said, this isn’t the year. Sell sell sell!

  19. You could say we’ve had bad luck but building your blue line around guys with a lot of miles on them this is bound to happen.

  26. Carlo trade will go down as one of the worst trades.

    Minten looking nice! And who knows what that first is going to be

  27. It was a GREAT idea to not start playing until second week of october.. Making an already condensed schedule even more stressed out. How many stars risk missing the olympics because 7 friendly games in two weeks before an 82 game season were super important?

    It’s a dumb league from top to bottom.. hockey players are humble and hard working but they’re horrible at managing their careers.

  28. They said it on OD a few weeks back- prior to our 13/14 of 16 games with points run…this could just merely be chalked up to being the “Year from Hell”. There’s been more than a few long-running playoff teams have seemingly off years in the midst of solid windows…and I’m just hoping that this is one of those. And the thing is we’re still very much in a playoff hunt on a really bad year.

    There’s positives to be taken away- Matthews, for the first time in almost 18 months is looking like Auston Matthews again, the powerplay is clicking, and the PK has been very good. Goaltending is *getting* more consistent but there is still work to be done there. AND we’ve dug ourselves out of the massive hole. And we’ve done that despite being the NHL’s Walking Wounded.

    Hopefully the Olympic break will give Stolarz a chance to get back into game shape as well, and rounds back into form.

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