Maple Leafs’ Andersen back at practice after close call vs. Ducks

Welcome sight for Toronto Maple Leafs fans as starting goalie Frederik Andersen is back on the ice, a day after colliding with Corey Perry and leaving the game vs. the Ducks.

TORONTO – Frederik Andersen’s first thought?

That was a close call.

Corey Perry’s skate blade came awfully close to his neck. The Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender also felt fortunate that he didn’t experience any concussion symptoms on Monday night after he was accidentally kicked in the side of the mask by his former teammate.

“It was like a good uppercut to the jaw, I think,” Andersen said Tuesday. “It was just kind of like whiplash in the neck. My jaw was really sore.”

The Leafs medical staff made the decision to keep him out for the final 26 minutes of a 7-4 victory over the Anaheim Ducks as a precaution.

Andersen has a history of head and neck issues – getting knocked out of two games by collisions in the crease late last season – but successfully completed concussion protocol on Monday without any issues.

“We were doing the whole protocol and that was fine,” said Andersen. “We thought we better be sure.”

He returned to the ice hours later for some extra work with goalie coach Steve Briere and backup Curtis McElhinney on Tuesday morning. He was also a full participant with his teammates for the practice that followed.

There’s every reason to believe that he’ll be back in goal for Wednesday’s visit by the Nashville Predators, although the Dane would only say “we’ll see” when asked about that possibility.

Andersen stayed down for a minute or two after the collision with Perry. The Ducks winger was cutting across the top of the crease when he got launched in the air by a check from Leafs defenceman Ron Hainsey, and inadvertently caught him with his left skate.

McElhinney came on in relief and stopped 15 of 16 shots to earn the victory.

“I talked to him last night so I wasn’t very concerned,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said of Andersen. “Obviously a good opportunity for Mac to play. This way [Freddie] didn’t have to play as many games.”

The 28-year-old is in the midst of his best and busiest NHL season – posting a .921 save percentage while leading the NHL in minutes played and shots faced.

Teammates have often pointed to Andersen as the team’s top performer this season.

After the game, the goaltender received a text from Perry to make sure was OK. You only need to see one replay of the incident to understand how it could easily have ended up with a worse outcome.

“When I saw it after, I was pretty lucky that it didn’t catch me in the neck there,” said Andersen. “I felt good today.”

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