Toronto Maple Leafs

Toronto Maple Leafs

Nylander suffered a lower-body injury during the first period of Thursday's game against the Vegas Golden Knights. Toronto's star forward registered a goal and an assist before leaving the contest. After the game, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube revealed that Nylander aggravated an existing lower-body injury. Nylander previously missed six games due to the injury, and returned to the lineup on January 10 against the Vancouver Canucks.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are going through one of their worst injury periods in recent memory. While the Leafs have dealt with injuries in the past, it's been a while since we've seen anything this bad. Last Tuesday, the Maple Leafs played with a depleted lineup and still managed to shutout the New Jersey Devils. However, that's more of an indictment of the Devils' shortcomings than the Leafs' virtues. Yes, Toronto pulled out the win. But the Devils didn't do much to help their case.

The play started after Trevor van Riemsdyk sent a pass to Anthony Beauvillier, camped out in the right circle. Beauvillier's initial backhanded shot was stopped by goaltender Joseph Woll, but the Caps forward found the rebound. He then sent a shot on his forehand that trickled through Woll's five-hole and stopped on the goal line uncovered. As Sutherland lost sight of the puck, he whistled the play dead.

Carlo and Robertson were among the 45 players included in the list to commemorate a critical point in the NHL schedule, with American Thanksgiving on Thursday. It is the point of emphasis that is usually a good indicator of which teams are bound for the playoffs and which are bound to miss. Toronto is on the outside looking in, which means many insiders will likely consider them as sellers, if the current trends of poor play continue.

It's safe to say that Craig Berube caught lightning in a bottle during the 2018-19 season. The Blues were a talented team that was underperforming and needed someone to come in and point them in the right direction. Having a future Hall of Fame defenceman in Alex Pietrangelo didn't hurt either. In fact, a comically deep blue line and team lousy with two-way talented top six forwards, along with emerging youthful talent like Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou, was a blessing. And that's before even discussing the unsustainably great rookie campaign from Jordan Binnington.

And I take full responsibility, I'm in charge of the hockey department, I put people in place on the ice. So, the responsibility lies with myself. And we start today and every day trying to get back up and going and improve where we are.

Fletcher had already been putting in work for the Maple Leafs in the post-Ballard era with the drastic franchise changing move that brought Doug Gilmour from Calgary, a Leafs trade that seemed to follow in the path of the Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar trade the Jays made a couple years earlier that would be the foundation for their World Series success.