Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe will miss Wednesday’s tilt against the Predators with an upper-body injury, head coach Craig Berube told reporters including David Alter of The Hockey News.
It will be the second game in a row McCabe has missed with the injury, which he sustained after taking a puck to the head/neck area against the Lightning last Saturday. McCabe said yesterday that he’d be “good to go” against Nashville, but Berube said today the blue-liner still “isn’t feeling right.” It’s unknown whether he’s in concussion protocol.
Fresh off signing a five-year, $23.5MM extension in October, the 31-year-old McCabe has been one-half of the best shutdown defense pairing in hockey alongside free-agent pickup Chris Tanev. Together, the duo is allowing just 1.3 expected goals against per 60 minutes, the fewest in the league by a country mile among pairings with at least 180 minutes of ice time together this season.
Offensively, McCabe has only five assists in 23 games, but he leads the team with a +11 rating and is second in both blocks (46) and hits (52). The Wisconsin native is also averaging a career-high 21:20 per game. Frequent healthy scratch Philippe Myers is projected to remain in a fringe top-four role alongside Morgan Rielly tonight, per Mark Masters of TSN, while Oliver Ekman-Larsson shifts back to his natural left side to skate alongside Tanev in place of McCabe.
There’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Recent Senators call-up Nikolas Matinpalo is absent from practice today due to an illness, per Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia. Ottawa elevated the 26-year-old from AHL Belleville yesterday to serve as an additional right-shot option with Artem Zub landing on long-term injured reserve, but it doesn’t appear he’ll be an option on Thursday against the Red Wings. The 6’2″ Finn likely would have sat in the press box anyway with Jacob Bernard-Docker, Travis Hamonic and Nick Jensen still all available on the right side.
- Flyers enforcer Nicolas Deslauriers left today’s practice session early due to an undisclosed injury, Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia reports. Head coach John Tortorella told reporters that something “tightened up” and didn’t necessarily call his departure precautionary, so it’s fair to call him questionable for for tomorrow’s home game against the Panthers. It won’t make much of a difference – the 33-year-old has been a healthy scratch for 10 games in a row and hasn’t played since Nov. 9. He has one assist in seven appearances this season with one fight while averaging a career-low 6:05 per game.