TORONTO – No one has played more defence or put up more points from the back end this season for the Toronto Maple Leafs than Jake Gardiner.
So it was with bated breath — and a brief spell of trade panic — that Leafs fans waited for Gardiner to return to the ice when he left midway through the first period of Wednesday’s 6-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
He never did.
“He was fine. When he got out there, he wasn’t fine,” coach Mike Babcock said post-game.
“I didn’t even know what happened, to tell you the truth – they just told me he had some sort of lower-body thing and he’s got some kind of spasm or something like that. He just couldn’t get it to relax or whatever. They wouldn’t let him come back.”
The Leafs have officially labelled it a lower-body injury. Gardiner and the rest of the team will have Thursday off to rest.
Babcock said it is unknown if Gardiner will be available to practice with the team Friday ahead of Saturday’s game in Pittsburgh.
Toronto got caved in on the shot clock 57-28 by Columbus, and both coaches credited Frederik Andersen’s goaltending as the reason the Leafs stole this one.
“You can see — they’re tired. Their D are exhausted, and we’re all over them,” said Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno, who scored twice.
The Leafs need Gardiner healthy.
With their minutes-muncher under examination, Rielly, Roman Polak and Travis Dermott all saw their average ice time climb by about three minutes apiece.
Dermott, the rookie, blamed fatigue for his mistake that led to a goal against.
“It was tough, for sure,” said Dermott, who was bumped up to Gardiner’s spot beside Nikita Zaitsev. “I don’t see how I can say it was easy by any means.”
Gardiner, 27, is working on a second straight season of perfect attendance. He leads all Leafs in average ice time (22:52) and his 2018 offensive surge has pushed him ahead of Morgan Rielly as the club leader in points by defencemen with 35.
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Since the calendar flipped only reigning Norris Trophy champ Brent Burns and current Norris contender John Klingberg have been more productive from the blue line.
In Gardiner’s past 12 games, he’s put up 15 points and a plus-9 rating. He’s on fire.
“I’m not really sure what that’s due to. I think part of it is the team playing better down the stretch and guys getting more comfortable with each other and knowing the systems more and more. Even on the opposition’s side, more teams are organized and you kinda know where everyone’s gonna be,” said Gardiner pre-game, giving a nod to his improved comfort with a healthy and more vocal Zaitsev.
“We’re going on all cylinders right now.”
Babcock has pointed to the improved defence on the Toronto farm team as a source of optimism.
Should Gardiner miss any time, right shot Connor Carrick (a healthy scratch Wednesday) is available. Left shot Marlies defender Andreas Borgman, who has already played 48 games with the big club, would no doubt welcome a call-up.
“The more [good defencemen] you have, the less time you spend in your zone and the more you win,” Babcock said.
“It’s good we have a day off tomorrow. We can take a breath and get ready to go again.”
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