The Toronto Maple Leafs winning streak ended at two games with a 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday, but the defeat was more impactful, as it was revealed on Thursday that team captain John Tavares sustained a broken finger late in the contest.
Tavares scored his third goal of the season with 2:33 left in the game with goaltender Michael Hutchinson pulled for an extra attacker, but according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston, Tavares suffered the broken finger before scoring after he was struck on the right hand by a Morgan Rielly point shot.
The 29-year-old has seven points (3 goals, 4 assists) in eight games, and the club indicated in a press release that Tavares will be out a minimum of two weeks, after which he will be he will be reassessed by the Maple Leafs medical staff.
Toronto started well in the second of back-to-back contests, fighting through the Capitals efforts to slow them down by being physical and taking a 2-0 lead in the first period on a short-handed goal by Kasperi Kapanen and a breakaway tally by Ilya Mikheyev, but Jakub Vrana cut the Leafs lead late in the first period and energized Washington in the middle frame.
Goals by Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstorm within 11 seconds gave the Caps the lead and John Carlson's shot on a five-on-three power play just over a minute late seemed to seal the Leafs fate.
"We started good, I thought we were set up good, I thought we were playing well. We had a couple of sort out problems at the start of the second period, we took penalties, we knocked the one over the glass and then we spent the rest of the night chasing the game." Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said after the game. "I thought we tried to crawl our way back into the game. I overplayed guys in the third; you're chasing the game and, in the end, you didn't have enough to get it done. It's disappointing because we felt we were set up pretty good, but the bottom line is we've got to find a way to play better in these back-to-backs."
The loss of Tavares for the rest of October and into November could see the Leafs captain be placed on LTIR for salary cap reasons and depending on the extent and severity of the injury. With the organizational depth up the middle not their greatest strength, GM Kyle Dubas will likely not call up Adam Brooks from the Toronto Marlies, but could recall someone like Egor Korshkov or Jeremy Bracco from the AHL and move another forward to the middle.
The injury will put a much heavier burden on Auston Matthews to continue his offensive production. It is unlikely that Babcock will split up Matthews and William Nylander and move the winger to center the second line. It is very possible that Alex Kerfoot will remain as the third line center between Ilya Mikheyev and Kasperi Kapanen, since that combo has been effective all season and that veteran Jason Spezza will get the first opportunity to fill in for Tavares between Trevor Moore and Mitch Marner.
What the club chooses to do will not become more clear until practice at the Ford Performance Centre on Friday.
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