Tough news for the Maple Leafs regarding Jake McCabe's injury
Photo credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Jake McCabe left Saturday's game vs. New York after being injured in the third period, and was absent at practice as concerns start to grow.
In an unfortunate bit of news for the Maple Leafs, it seems like Jake McCabe's injury from Saturday's game against the Islanders is more than just a little stinger for the veteran blueliner.
There's no indication of what exactly caused the injury to McCabe however it was serious enough for him to leave the game and to have Craig Berube explain he would need some further evaluation.
McCabe absent at practice as concerns grow surrounding unknown injury
It's a real shot in the leg if the Maple Leafs are going to be without their best defender, and practice on Monday didn't necessarily bring a lot of hope.
According to David Alter, McCabe was absent from practice as the Maple Leafs took the ice, and revealed the steam would likely give an update on the defenseman later on Monday:
As #Leafs practice begins, Jake McCabe is not taking part. He was injured in the third period on Saturday and an update is expected today.
McCabe joins Tanev and Carlo as Toronto's blueline quickly depleting
If the Maple Leafs were to lose McCabe for any extended period of time that would put them down three of their regular defenders as he would join Chris Tanev (who may be out for the year) and Brandon Carlo; who has been skating but isn't near a return from his foot surgery in December.
According to Craig Berube, he believes that McCabe will miss roughly a week and the injury he sustained was a lower-body injury:
McCabe, 32, has 16 points in 41 games this season (3 goals, 13 assists) and a plus-26 while adding 104 blocks and 58 hits in 22:01 TOI which would be a career-high in minutes.
All we can hope for is that the update on McCabe is nothing serious and he can work his way back not the ice soon. Though if we start to hear the dreaded day to day status bring thrown around, we need to start getting a little worried.
For now, the team is going to need to hope that guys like Morgan Rielly, Troy Stecher, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and the newly-recalled Marshall Rifai can withstand whatever comes their way because if McCabe is out for any extended period; that's a potential death sentence for Toronto's playoff hopes.