The Toronto Maple Leafs are holding their collective breath.
Morgan Rielly suffered an undisclosed injury during Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers and the team was awaiting word on the severity after travelling to Ottawa following the game.
Rielly saw an imaging technician at Wells Fargo Center following the 3-2 overtime loss to the Flyers. He looked to be in discomfort while walking to the bus.
The Leafs’ top defenceman was injured late in the second period after getting tangled up with Jake Voracek and falling awkwardly to the ice. His right arm appeared to take the brunt of the impact.
Rielly hunched over while gliding back to the bench and headed straight to the dressing room. Even though he returned for the third period, the Leafs limited his playing time — giving him nearly three minutes less than usual partner Ron Hainsey from that point on.
“What we’ll do is he’ll get checked out,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said Thursday night. “I haven’t talked to him since that [happened]. He’ll get checked out. We had to be careful with him down the stretch, so we’ll see what that is and know more [Friday].”
Toronto is scheduled to hold a 2 p.m. practice at Canadian Tire Centre on Friday before facing the Senators on Saturday night.
Losing Rielly for any length of time would be a major blow for a team already playing without blue-liner Nikita Zaitsev, who is recovering from a broken foot.
Rielly is having a career-best season with five goals and 31 points. It earned him consideration from the NHL as a possible injury replacement for the all-star game in Tampa later this month.
[relatedlinks]
