The Toronto Maple Leafs were without two very important pieces at practice on Monday as they were looking to have a break after a grueling season thus far.
When Craig Berube gives players a maintenance day, it can go either one of two ways. Either a) the player genuinely needs a break and could use a day off or b) they're injured and Berube is playing coy.
We've seen this earlier in the year when Max Domi underwent a maintenance day that turned into a multiple week absence. While there's nothing to say that Marner has any injuries and he is one of the only players who have appeared in every game this season, it's more than likely option A.
But it's still concerning if Marner were to miss any time as the Maple Leafs lineup looks a bit rough without him.
This season, Marner has been out of this world with 16 goals and 54 assists; recently he also became the fastest Maple Leaf to reach 70 points since team legends Doug Gilmour and Dave Andreychuk over 30 years ago.
Ekman-Larsson's absence is understandable given he didn't return against Edmonton, and while it's unknown the extent of the injury it's not going to be good if he misses time.
While Toronto is solid enough defensively with Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev, the other names past them have struggled.
The loss of Ekman-Larsson hurts the team as he's been solid offensively and brought a veteran voice and edge to a new-look Leafs team. This season he has three goals and 18 assists in 51 games.