Flu bug? Illness going around Leafs locker room
The Toronto Maple Leafs are working their way through a winter bug.
Though the team has picked up points in all four contests since last Thursday, it seems like there’s a bit of an illness going around Toronto’s locker room.
Gone are the days of COVID-19 protocols and masking in NHL locker rooms, where frequent testing may have shut down a team from playing entirely.
But while the team isn’t exactly disclosing details of who is sick — or how bad — it appears that multiple players are caught up with some sort of illness.
“We’ve got some guys a little banged up, we’ve got some new guys sick,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters yesterday. “We’ve got some things to manage here today.”
Toronto’s sickness troubles are only made worse by the loss of goalie Joseph Woll in last week’s win over Ottawa, as he’s expected to be out week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
Forward Matthew Knies seems to be hit the hardest, as he was made a late scratch in Tuesday’s win over the New York Rangers, a 7-3 victory for the visiting Toronto side.
“Matthew Knies is really sick, a lot of these guys are very sick,” TSN commentator Gord Miller noted on the broadcast last night.
But regardless of whether the players are sick or not, it seems like most of them have been dealing with the fatigue of Toronto’s once-stagnant schedule picking up again with four games in the last six nights.
“For a lot of the game, I thought we looked like a tired team, quite honestly, but we did what we needed to do in terms of building the lead,” Keefe said postgame.
Regardless of whether they’re a bit under the weather or not, it doesn’t seem to be affecting the team much. Toronto is now 6-1-3 in their last 10 games — their best run of the season — as they sit third in the Atlantic Division with 35 points through 26 games.
Toronto returns to the ice tomorrow night when they host the Seattle Kraken at Scotiabank Arena. Puck drop is set for 7 pm ET.
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