The Toronto Maple Leafs are gearing up for their trip to Sweden later this week after a successful weekend of back-to-backs this past weekend. Following a 5-4 shootout win over the Calgary Flames and a more-convincing 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, the Leafs practiced Monday morning for one of their last skates on North American soil before they take off for their Scandinavian adventure.
Nothing much was out of the ordinary from today’s practice. Sorry, there’s nothing about scratching Ryan Reaves or Nick Robertson joining the third line like we’ve had in the past week. That said, there are a couple of injury-related notes that we can touch on.
First and foremost, Noah Gregor shifted to centre with Reaves sliding in on the right side after David Kampf had the day off. When Keefe was asked about Kampf’s health, he provided a hilarious update. Let’s see if Sheldon can dodge a fine for this one.
Sheldon Keefe on Leafs centre David Kampf missing practice:
“He’s going to be fine. He just needs some of the swelling to go down in his face from the clean hit to the head that he took.”@TSN_Edge
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) November 13, 2023
Just in case you missed it, Keefe was referring to the hit on Kampf by Canucks forward (and funny enough, former Leafs draft pick) Dakota Joshua. A taller Joshua caught Kampf up high with a hit during Saturday’s tilt, which prompted 40-year-old Mark Giordano to drop the gloves with Joshua, something I don’t think a single soul in the world between his teammates and the fans didn’t enjoy watching.
Keefe was also asked about Klingberg, who missed practice today in favour of “progressing well” Conor Timmins, but didn’t offer up as good of an answer as he did for Kampf.
Sheldon Keefe asked if he can share the nature of John Klingberg’s injury and: No.
Klingberg expected to practice this week in Stockholm but may not tomorrow.
— David Alter (@dalter) November 13, 2023
Klingberg missed Friday’s game against Calgary with an undisclosed injury, but played on Saturday and actually had a very good game compared to the disaster of a season it’s been for him so far. While I’d imagine he’ll be in the lineup for one of if not both games in his native Sweden this weekend, Keefe said that he would likely practice in Stockholm later this week but probably not tomorrow.
One quick note on Timmins, who’s missed the past six weeks with a lower-body injury – he skated in a regular jersey today and quarterbacked the top power-play unit in place of Klingberg while skating as the seventh defenceman. Keefe said that he’s reportedly been progressing ahead of schedule and that a determination on his status would be made later this week.
Timmins is no stranger to the injury bug, but his presence when healthy is precisely what the Leafs need in their lineup, and pretty much exactly what they thought they’d be getting from Klingberg. He was having a rockstar preseason, with six points through his first two games, but suffered another injury that’s kept him out of the lineup since.
Keefe also declined to name starting goaltenders for the pair of games this weekend, but with a back-t0-back upon return next week, said that they would need both netminders to be ready to go.
The Leafs will play two games in Sweden this weekend – one on Friday afternoon against the Detroit Red Wings, and one on Sunday morning against the Minnesota Wild.
