The Maple Leafs will begin life without Morgan Rielly when they host the St. Louis Blues for the opener of their three-game homestand on Tuesday night.
For comparison’s sake, Toronto went 14-2-1 in 17 outings without Rielly in the lineup in 2022-23. Translation: It can be done.
With all that in mind, we kicked off the Tuesday edition of Leafs Morning Take by dissecting some of the comments from the parties involved following Monday’s practice. As a whole, the Leafs defended Rielly and were shocked that he could be looking at a five-plus game ban here. Unsurprisingly, Ryan Reaves was one of the players who spoke on the situation. As expected, he had some fantastic quotes —which included, “make hockey violent again.”
The debate rages on.
Presented by Door Dash, The Appetizer focused on some of the fallout from Monday’s practice. Of note, Jake McCabe was running the first power play unit in lieu of the pending Rielly suspension. Additionally, Mark Giordano and David Kampf were back in the mix and are all systems go to return against the Blues. Also, Joseph Woll took part in his first full practice since sustaining his ankle injury. Meantime, Martin Jones is considered day-to-day due to injury, so we discussed the significance of that as well —especially with Woll’s returning looming.
Thanks to the Wendy’s Daily Faceoff Survivor, we previewed the first of two meetings between the Leafs and Blues over the next six days. Ilya Samsonov will get the call in goal. The two teams have hit the over in four consecutive meetings. Take note.
Speaking of which, courtesy of BATL Axe, Blues captain Brayden Schenn dropped by the show for a few minutes. Firstly, we got his take on the whole Rielly/Greig situation. After that, we tackled the new coach bump. St. Louis is 15-7-1 since firing Craig Berube and promoting Drew Bannister.
Carter Hutton is set to fill in for Jay Rosehill for the next two shows. Join us on Wednesday at 11 AM ET (Valentine’s Day) as we recap Leafs/Blues plus look ahead to the Philadelphia game on Thursday.
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