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The Toronto Maple Leafs are fortunate that their schedule will lighten up this week after starting the season with three games in four nights. The Leafs have home matchups against the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday and New York Rangers on Saturday night, but may be without one or more of their key players due to the fall flu going through the locker room.
The Leafs got back center John Tavares at practice after the veteran missed the home opener against Pittsburgh on Saturday due to illness, but were without winger William Nylander at practice because of the same sickness, putting his status for Wednesday in doubt.
“It’s up in the air right now, we’ll see how he feels later on. I’ll find out more later, but hopefully he’s fine.” Leafs head coach Craig Berube said. “We've had more guys with it too, but they were able to keep going. We’ve got to watch for it. (It was) great to see JT out there today, he got through practice."
Max Pacioretty replaced Tavares on the top power play unit on Saturday and at practice the veteran winger replaced Nylander with Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and new quarterback Oliver Ekman-Larsson. The Leafs are without a goal in nine opportunities with the man advantage (one of four NHL clubs still without a power play marker), so Berube is looking to shake things up in hope of a spark.
The Leafs head coach had some optimism regarding injured goalie Joseph Woll, who is eligible to come off injured reserve on Wednesday, but the chances of him being activated are slim since he has still not practiced with the club. Woll skated prior to practice on Monday and did the same on Tuesday.
“(Joe’s) improving, he went out there again on the ice today,” Berube said. “There were no issues after yesterday on the ice, which is great news. There’s a good chance he could be with us at practice (on Wednesday).”
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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