Losing against the divisional rival Buffalo Sabres wasn’t the only loss that the Toronto Maple Leafs suffered on Thursday evening at Scotiabank Arena.
The Maple Leafs also lost former captain John Tavares, who fell to the ice after an awkward collision and needed assistance getting back to the bench and down the tunnel toward the team dressing room.
The fear was that Tavares may have suffered a significant injury, considering that he wasn’t able to place any weight on his leg as he was being helped off. But the silver lining is that, despite him being projected to miss the next several weeks, the injury wasn’t as severe as some feared.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Avoided The Worst-Case Scenario With John Tavares’ Injury
Tavares has been officially designated as “week to week”, meaning that fans can safely expect him to not be available any time soon.
But thankfully, Tavares avoided what could have been the worst-case scenario – a season-ending torn ACL.
Per physician Dr. Harjas Grewal, who often gives his impression on hockey injuries on social media, a torn ACL was a potential outcome upon reviewing the tape of Tavares’ injury.
“Not a great angle but looks like some inward stress to the right knee (and maybe ankle too) Mechanism most often causes MCL injuries and/or high ankle sprains (timeline depends on severity, often 4-6 weeks) Torn ACL also possible but less likely for Tavares,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Without Tavares, the Maple Leafs will next face the New York Islanders on home ice on Saturday evening; puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET.
Maple Leafs 1st Overall Pick Gavin McKenna Was Benched
Fans noticed that first overall draft pick Gavin McKenna was benched during the third period and overtime of Thursday’s loss.
However, he spoke with head coach Jim Hiller and said that he intends to simply “shake it off” and be ready to play in their next game.
“Honestly sitting there watching, I tried to learn as much as I could,” McKenna said via NHL.com. “I think whenever you get a team like this and you got players like Matthews, Tavares, Nylander, all those veterans, I think you can learn a lot when you’re just watching.”
“Just shake it off; you’ve got 84 games in a season, so one off game doesn’t mean the end of the world,” McKenna said. “We got a game on Saturday, so it’s a pretty quick bounce back, just shaking it off. … They’ve all kind of told me the same thing, and I’m just trying not to think about it at this point.”
Maple Leafs Avoided Frightening Worst-Case With John Tavares