Chris Tanev is still on injured reserve, but the Toronto Maple Leafs heard something better than silence this morning.
On Early Insider Trading, CJ said he's sensing a little more optimism around Tanev's situation than what the defenseman went through last season with multiple injuries.
The listed timeline hasn't budged. The 36-year-old is out with an upper-body injury until at least Oct. 19.
Do the math on the schedule. He misses tonight's puck drop in Utah, Thursday's home date with Buffalo and Saturday's visit from the Islanders.
The first game on or after that date is Monday, when San Jose comes to town.
He has dressed for all six of Toronto's games so far, chipping in one assist and a +1 rating.
Nobody signed him for points. The $4.5 million cap hit pays for the unglamorous defending that shows up around the crease and never on a scoresheet.
Darren Raddysh and an aging Leafs blue line get tested in Utah
So what does a little more optimism actually buy this team tonight? Not much.
Toronto's back end was leaky even with him in the lineup. The Leafs have allowed 18 goals through six games.
Darren Raddysh carries an $8.5 million cap hit and a -4 rating. That's an ugly pairing of numbers when the steadiest defender in the room is unavailable.
Morgan Rielly is supplying the offense from the blue line with four assists. Jake McCabe and Troy Stecher sit at +2 apiece, which counts as good news around here.
Then there are the birth certificates. Rielly is 32, McCabe is 33, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, 35, is still hunting his first point of the season.
Running a blue line this old without Tanev is like taking a vintage pickup on a long road trip with no spare in the trunk. Fine, right up until it isn't.
Here's the part nobody in Toronto wants to hear. Building a defense that leans this hard on a 36-year-old staying healthy is a bad bet in October, never mind April.
Goaltending isn't erasing mistakes either. Sergei Bobrovsky sits at a .907 save percentage, with Anthony Stolarz at .904.
The forwards can paper over some of it. William Nylander has 11 points and Auston Matthews has 10.
And the Leafs arrive off a 6-3 win Saturday night in Colorado, their lone road victory so far.
Utah won't make it easy. Andre Tourigny's group is 4-2-0 with a +7 goal differential and won in Buffalo last time out.
Tonight is the first of two meetings this season, with the rematch set for Nov. 3 in Toronto.
The Leafs sit fourth in their division at 3-2-1. A short-handed blue line is exactly how a decent start quietly turns mediocre.
Optimism doesn't block shots, and Monday is still six days away. Until his name hits a lineup card, Jim Hiller is coaching around a hole nobody else on this roster fills.
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Should the Maple Leafs go out and add a defenseman before Chris Tanev returns?
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