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The Toronto Maple Leafs have been dodging bullets in the last week with defensive injuries, whether it be Jake McCabe having a minor day-to-day groin strain or Timothy Liljegren bouncing back after an upper-body injury suffered on Saturday, but in their 3-2 shootout loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday, the Leafs suffered a serious GSW, as Liljegren suffered what appeared to be a serious lower-body injury late in the first period after being can-opened by Bruins forward Brad Marchand.
Liljegren struggled to get back to his skates after his left leg slammed into the boards, and Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe did not get any kind of explanation from referee Wes McCauley for why Marchand was not given even a minor penalty.
“I got nothing (from him). They didn’t see the stick go between his legs for the can opener to make him go feet-first into the boards in the most dangerous area of the ice. He didn’t see it.” Keefe said. “It looks like (Timothy will) miss significant time. We are not going to know for sure until we get him home and get a picture, but it is not short-term at this point with the way it looks.”
In one aspect of the game, the Leafs were full marks of getting back into the game after falling behind 2-0, getting goals from Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews to tie the game, and earning a point with a great performance from Ilya Samsonov (38 saves), but for all the talk about there being more accountability with the addition of Ryan Reaves, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Max Domi to the roster, the lack of any pushback whatsoever from Toronto after the Liljegren incident makes the club look like the highly-skilled pushover that they have been over the last few years.
No one is asking for retribution on a disproportionate scale from the Leafs, but you would never see an incident like that go unanswered if it were perpetrated on the Bruins, Panthers, or Lightning. Reaves was interviewed by ESPN’s Emily Kaplan during a first-period TV timeout and was asked what contribution he was making to the club, and said that he made his teammates feel a couple inches taller with his presence.
That evaluation has to be reconsidered after Reaves made little impact after the incident. Bertuzzi continued to make little impact in his 10th game with the Leafs, as he was demoted from the second to the fourth line and played just 11:32 on the evening.
Toronto will have to make an addition to their blueline from the AHL Marlies with Liljegren out long-term, with their next match at home against the Buffalo Sabres at home on Saturday.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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