Craig Berube Reveals Timeline for Maple Leafs Top Defenseman's Return

As the Maple Leafs look to take on their most heated rivals on Saturday night, they will be doing so without a lot of familiar faces. Out are Oliver Ekman-Larsson, David Kampf, and Jake McCabe, who have all dealt with injuries this past week at potentially the worst time possible.

While Ekman-Larsson is day-to-day, we still don't really have a definitive answer for when McCabe and Kampf are going to be coming back.

With the playoffs starting in less than two weeks, and Toronto needing to be at full health for any chance of success; things are starting to grow concerning.

Which is made even worse with the news that McCabe is going to be out for the weekend and the back to back games the Leafs have in store, according to Craig Berube.

However, he expects McCabe to finish out the regular season in a glimmer of hope.

It's a blessing and a curse. Firstly, Berube never said day-to-day for McCabe so we can rule out that he's going to be out for six weeks. It's positive that Berube expects him back, but there are no guarantees, and it may be in Toronto's best interest to rest him as much as possible if he's dealing with something.

They already have the playoffs locked up, and a win against Montreal all but assures the team the division and home-ice advantage.

Now is the time to try and rest as much as possible, and McCabe is so crucial to the team, he's better off missing now and getting healthy than risking aggravating anything.

But it's also alarming to think that McCabe is only expected to be back, which opens to door for a lot of factors and issues to pop up and delay that return.

He's already got some injury concerns, and the more he keeps getting hurt, the longer his timetable becomes, and that's a death sentence come playoff time.

McCabe has been very good this season, with 23 points in 66 games (2G, 21A) but adding 135 hits, 108 blocks and a plus-23 rating and forming an elite duo with Chris Tanev on the back end as Toronto's top pairing.

All we can hope for at this point is that it's nothing serious with Jake McCabe and the caution that Toronto is taking will pay off in the playoffs.

If not, then expect not only a swift exit round one if McCabe and the team can't stay healthy.