After a few days where bad news piled up for the Maple Leafs on the injury front, now everybody’s working for the weekend.
No news was good news where winger Matthew Knies’ injury was concerned on Thursday, after he departed the previous night’s game with a suspected head or neck issue from a body check thrown by Vegas defenceman Zach Whitecloud.
“He’s actually feeling OK today, which is good news,” head coach Craig Berube said after practice was handed over to the club’s skill development staff for an afternoon of on- and off-ice work. “He’s still being evaluated and looked at.”
Knies was at the Ford Centre on Thursday.
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“Guys were checking in on him and making sure he was OK,” winger Steven Lorentz said.
Berube also was able to report Auston Matthews had a satisfactory visit to Germany, where his mystery upper-body injury was examined by a specialist outside the Leafs organization.
“He’s actually improving and in a really good spot. I still don’t know (when he’ll resume skating). Maybe this weekend,” the coach said.
The schedule is in the Leafs’ favour with no games until Sunday, when Utah HC, the former Arizona Coyotes, make their first visit. Then it’s another break until the start of a Florida trip in Sunrise.
The Leafs, a point up on the Panthers for first place in the Atlantic Division before Thursday’s games, now have a record of 6-1 sans Matthews this season and 41-21-2 all-time.
But Wednesday’s 3-0 shutout was the most significant of all the wins, with Knies and Matthews part of seven forwards who were missing.
Knies getting KO’d by a controversial shoulder check in the jaw was still being debated and dissected Thursday on social media, but teammate Simon Benoit didn’t wait to judge when it happened in front of him.
The Toronto defenceman went right after Whitecloud and wound up with the extra two minutes when the officials went to video and looked past the Vegas player getting too carried away launching himself at Knies.
“I think his feet were off the ice when he hit Kniesey in the head and I just had to go in there and protect my teammate,” Benoit said. “Not a good hit, but (the officials) aren’t going to go back on their call.
“You never really know what they’re going to call. You just react. You let the guy (Whitecloud) know it’s not something that’s in the past and hopefully he remembers.”
It was Benoit who said last year he sensed the Leafs were forming “a brotherhood” dedicated to bringing out the type of “all for one” response on Wednesday on a team often criticized in past for being soft.
Two of the missing players were Max Domi, who plays with an edge even when he’s in a scoring slump such as his current dip, and designated heavyweight Ryan Reaves, suspended for an illegal check to the head of Oilers’ Darnell Nurse last Saturday.
Though it can be argued Leafs rookie Nikita Grebenkin started the chain of events Wednesday by boarding Shea Theodore and escaping a penalty, every Toronto player seemed to amplify his game after Knies was hurt, everyone from John Tavares to Conor Timmins.
“We are a pretty tight group and we’ve shown it this year that we stick up for players,” Benoit said. “It’s just something we have to continue doing.
“I don’t think it’s something that certain guys should do (all the time), I think everybody should if you want to keep that brotherhood. Whoever it is, stick up for them.”
Lorentz said it was good that Grebenkin played to his strengths — “getting his nose dirty, not playing on the perimeter” — and that spread through the bench.
Berube said that he can see a gradual buy-in of the whole system change he wants many uber-talented Leafs to adopt: Less fancy, more forceful.
“It’s not a switch that’s going to flip overnight,” Lorentz said. “It’s something that takes time and not an easy thing to do, especially when you might not want to block a shot or not want to take a hit where you’re going to get laid out.
“It’s little things like that, or going into checks rather than just poking with your stick and taking the body. It’s hard hockey, but it’s winning hockey. You can see the steps in growth with the team.
“You get that buy-in, everyone pulling on the same rope and it makes it more fun.”
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