Leafs look to snap skid without Tavares 

The Leafs placed centre John Tavares on injured reserve on Thursday.

"It's week to week right now," said coach Craig Berube. "It's just bad luck but, you know, it is what it is. We've got to move on from it right now."

Tavares fell awkwardly after getting tied up with defenceman Chris Tanev during Wednesday's practice. 

"What I was told early on Wednesday night is that we might be looking at two to four weeks for Tavares to be out," said TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun.

"There seems to be a little more optimism on Thursday morning that perhaps it could be less than that, but really the key piece of information is that the Leafs will have a better idea in seven to 10 days of where Tavares is at. Until then it's a bit of guess work. My guess is that it'll be at least two weeks. We'll see where he's at in 10 days."

In the meantime, Toronto can draw confidence from how they played earlier this season when Auston Matthews missed time with a nagging upper-body injury. The Leafs went 10-5-0 without their top-line centre.

"I like our depth," said defenceman Jake McCabe. "We've showed that it's been an asset for us in the past when we've had guys out, so I don't expect anything different."

Tavares is second on the team in goals (20) and third in points (42). He's only missed one game this season and that was due to an illness. 

"He's been bringing it every single game this season," said winger Bobby McMann. "Whether he ends up on the scoresheet or not, just a good leader every single night, so definitely a big hole that's going to be tough to fill."

---

Max Domi will move up to the second-line centre spot.

"I've used him up there before with [William] Nylander," Berube said. "He's a guy that can go up there and provide some offence and playmaking ability. We're going to need that from him."

Domi has struggled to produce offence this season. He's scored just three goals, which all came during a three-game stretch in mid-December. Since then, he has four assists in 12 games. The 29-year-old has been tight-lipped when asked about the state of his game.

"Good," Domi said succinctly when asked to appraise the performance of his line of late.

Why has the offence dried up?

"Hey, man, it happens," said Domi, who produced nine goals and 47 points during his first season in Toronto. "Comes and goes, but just gotta stick with it."

Berube made a point of chatting with Domi before Wednesday's practice.

"He needs to get on the inside more," said Berube. "He needs to shoot pucks more, which I thought he has the last couple games. And skate. He's a good skater. He's got to use the speed."

---

Pontus Holmberg will draw back into the lineup after sitting as a healthy scratch on Tuesday. 

The Leafs called up centre Fraser Minten from the American Hockey League, but the 20-year-old will be a healthy scratch on Thursday. Why?

"He hasn't practised with us," Berube explained. "It's not so much of an emergency. We have players here that have been with us in practice and played. I thought about it for a while, but I went with what I went with."

Minten posted two goals and two assists during an 11-game run with the Leafs earlier this season. He has five goals and five assists in 16 games with the Toronto Marlies. 

---

The Leafs will get McCabe back from injury on Thursday night. 

"Caber's a big part of our group – both on and off the ice," said Domi. "Plays so hard. Competes, and he's an absolute warrior." 

"Knows a lot about what it takes to win," McMann said. "Brings that calmness, but also that intensity that we need to bring every night to win games."

McCabe will slot back in on Toronto's shutdown pair beside Tanev. That duo also plays together on the penalty kill. 

McCabe has not suited up since getting hurt in a fight with Philadelphia Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway on Jan. 5. He isn't expecting any rust. 

"I missed a week and a half," McCabe said. "I'll be alright."

The Leafs are 4-5-0 without McCabe this season.

McCabe credited former Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe, now the bench boss in New Jersey, for helping his game develop. 

"He really opened up my mind, at least [on] the offensive side of the puck, and gaining middle ice and how that can break teams down."

McCabe produced a career-high eight goals and 28 points last season. The burly blueliner made a big impression on Keefe. 

"He does so many things very well," Keefe said. "He's just such a gamer too. When I spoke with Caber after being let go, one of the things I said to him was, 'Every team needs a Jake McCabe.' He's the ultimate team player, plays the game hard and honest, but also works at his game and I really enjoyed having him."

---

The Leafs have dropped three straight games in regulation for the first time this season. Even before the losses started piling up, there were warning signs. 

"Not even just the last three games, I don't think we've really liked our game overall the last five or six, even when we're winning games," McCabe acknowledged.

"You're not going to go 82-0," said Domi. "That's the goal, everyone wants to do that, but losses happen and unfortunately sometimes they string along. The whole league seems to be going through it now, so you just got to nip it in the bud. We'll stick together as a group, as we always do. It's three games, man, so just gotta win one and we're back in the groove here."

Over the past nine seasons, the Leafs have lost four or more consecutive games in regulation just once. The only time it happened was the final five games of the Mike Babcock era in November 2019. 

This core has, historically, done a good job of stopping losing streaks before they snowball.

"Veteran team," McCabe noted. "I think we know what we're capable of in here and know what it takes to get out of a skid and that's what has allowed us to avoid it ... We've been finding ways to win this year even when we haven't had our best stuff, so that's a big part of it."

What has to change to get the team back in the win column? 

"We'll keep all that in house," Domi said. "You guys can make your [comments and] whatever you gotta do. You got a job to do, I get that, but we know what we have to do win and we'll do that."

The Leafs have lost each of their past three games by three goals. Per the Elias Sports Bureau, it had been nearly 10 years since the last time Toronto lost three straight games, each by three or more goals. They lost four in a row in that fashion in March 2015.

"Definitely hungry for a win," McMann said. "Execution is the biggest thing. Making sure we're confident but we're also hungry to push and continue to work to try and get those opportunities."

---

Keefe is coaching his first game back in Toronto since being fired by the Leafs in the summer. 

"They even painted the hallways red for me," Keefe said while wearing a red Devils logo and admiring the new paint job outside the visiting dressing room.

Keefe has worked out of the visitors' room before when he was head coach of the Marlies. He's also stood behind the visitors bench here during the bubble playoffs when all the games, even the 'road' ones, took place inside Scotiabank Arena. 

"It feels similar," the Brampton, Ont. native said. "Actually came in basically the same walk that I took every day coming in here. I always came in the Raptors entrance that way, so just stopped short a little bit this time.”

There's been a lot of deja vu for Keefe during this trip home. 

"Fought traffic on the QEW on the way to get here and then the Gardiner here this morning," he said with a grin.

This is the first and only trip to Toronto for the Devils this season, but Keefe has already been back to the city multiple times to visit his family. His wife and two sons, aged 12 and 14, continue to live here. 

"I loved every second of being the Leafs coach," Keefe said. "You can just tell, I mean, the fact that I left my family here. We're very comfortable here ... Having young kids that are out and about with sports and such, I was probably out in the public more than most, at least coaches, and I never once had a negative experience."

Keefe is expected to be formally welcomed back on the video board by the Leafs during the game on Thursday night.

"I don't think it's going to be a negative one," said McCabe when asked about the expected reception. "Had a lot of successful teams here. Obviously didn't get it done in the playoffs, but I don't think there's any bad blood there from my understanding." 

Keefe is the only coach alive to guide the franchise to a playoff series win and left Toronto with the highest points percentage of any coach in team history. 

"There's not a lot of emotion attached to it right now, quite honestly," Keefe said. "It feels very familiar, as I said, everything from my drive in this morning to the walk in, very familiar in that sense. But it'll be different here tonight on the other side of it. But I also don't want to make it bigger than it is because it really is ultimately a hockey game and the players will determine the outcome on the ice on both sides. And I'll look to enjoy it for what it is, and then we'll move along."

Keefe revealed that he put "a fair amount" of money on the board when the Leafs visited Newark in October, but Toronto ended up spoiling New Jersey's home opener.

"It did not go well," Keefe said. "So, I'm not revisiting that. We're going to play for the points tonight."

---

Anthony Stolarz stole two points from the Devils by stopping 38 of 39 shots during a Leafs win on Dec. 10. One game later, on Dec. 12, Stolarz sustained a knee injury, which has sidelined him ever since.

Stolarz skated on his own on Thursday morning. It's the first time we've seen him on the ice since he got hurt.

Joseph Woll did not skate on Thursday and is the projected starter against the Devils.