Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson is expected to be ready for the playoffs, head coach Craig Berube said on Tuesday.
Ekman-Larsson, 33, hasn’t played since sustaining an upper-body injury while falling awkwardly on a breakaway in a 4-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning last Wednesday.
The Maple Leafs (50-26-4, 104 points) visit the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night and host the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday to conclude the regular season.
Toronto is four points up on the second-place Lightning in the race for the Atlantic Division title. The postseason begins on Saturday.
“Right now, I mean, I expect (Ekman-Larsson) to play, but you never know,” Berube said on Tuesday. “He’s tough. He’ll play through things. And if he’s not in the lineup, somebody else is going to have to step up. That’s just the bottom line. That’s part of the playoffs.”
Edman-Larsson, 33, has four goals, 25 assists, a plus-14 rating, 52 penalty minutes, 83 blocks, 108 hits and a 21:04 average ice time in 77 games in his first season with Toronto.
He has 500 career points (148 goals, 362 assists) in 1,059 games with the then-Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes (2010-21), Vancouver Canucks (2021-23), Florida Panthers (2023-24) and Maple Leafs.
Defenseman Jake McCabe will miss his sixth consecutive game on Tuesday because of an upper-body injury. He might not return before the first-round playoff series is underway.
“There’s always a concern, right?” Berube said. “It’s just a little ways away yet for me to make those kinds of decisions and things like that. I’ve got to see them up close a little bit more here and talk to these guys and see where they’re at.”
McCabe, 31, has two goals, 21 assists, a plus-23 rating, 40 penalty minutes, 135 blocks and 118 hits while averaging a team-high 21:31 of ice time in 66 games this season.
He has 175 career points (35 goals, 140 assists) in 643 games with the Sabres (2013-21), Chicago Blackhawks (2021-23) and Maple Leafs (February 2023-present).
–Field Level Media
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