Maple Leafs Lose Game, McCabe In Montreal

Less than twenty four hours – perhaps that was the problem right there – after handing the Atlanta Thrashers a convincing 4-0 defeat on Friday night, the Maple Leafs were handed a lopsided defeat of their own on Saturday at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens. The two points though was not the biggest loss for the Maple Leafs on this night. Late in the game, Bryan McCabe was rubbed out along the half boards in his own end by Andrei Kastsitsyn, jamming his wrist and falling to the ice in obvious agony. Following the game, it was determined that McCabe had broken his left wrist in three places and will be out a minimum of six weeks.

The injury comes at a time when McCabe was playing his best hockey of the season, finally starting to resemble the McCabe who earned that mammoth contract at the end of the 2005-2006 season. On Monday, doctors will determine if McCabe will require surgery. Paul Maurice and John Ferguson Jr. now have the task of finding a replacement to account for some of McCabe’s thirty minutes of ice time per game.

Obviously, a call up from the Marlies – likely one of either Derrick Walser, Bryan Muir, Anton Stralman or Jay Harrison (Staffan Kronwall is out with a broken hand) – cannot simply be plugged into the lineup and utilized as if he was McCabe. Minutes for Tomas Kaberle, Pavel Kubina, Ian White, Andy Wozniewski, and Hal Gill will have to increase as Paul Maurice spreads out McCabe’s ice time between the five remaining defensemen and the call up from the Marlies.

The Maple Leafs were never in this game against Montreal. The Canadiens opened the scoring on a goal by Saku Koivu midway through the first period. Koivu scored again early in the second period allowing Montreal to employ the trap – a defensive style the Maple Leafs have struggled against dating back to the Pat Quinn era – shutting down any kind of speed the Maple Leafs attempted to generate through the neutral zone.

Boyd Deveraux managed to snap the shutout bid of Habs’ netminder Carey Price late in the third period.

The Maple Leafs will head back to the southern United States to take on the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.