Two big pieces missing from Leafs practice despite Tavares’ return

Everyone in Toronto held their breaths on Tuesday night when Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Muzzin went down the tunnel and missed the remainder of the game against the Washington Capitals. 

It was revealed that the veteran blue liner left the game with a charley horse, and we don’t know what the timeline will be for Muzzin. However, he was missing from practice on Wednesday morning along with teammate Morgan Rielly. 

This has raised a lot of concern seeing that Rielly’s status is undisclosed for now. TSN’s Kristen Shilton noted that several forwards were dressed in defenceman-black today, which is intriguing.

The good news is that captain John Tavares has returned to practice. This is his first team session since breaking his finger two weeks ago. 

It is believed that he could return to action over the weekend. It remains to be seen if other important pieces of the lineup will be missing… 

This is what the lines looked like at practice on Wednesday: 

Moore-Tavares-Marner
Johnsson-Matthews-Nylander
Mikheyev-Kerfoot-Kapanen
Timashov-Shore-Gauthier

Spezza (Rielly placeholder)-Ceci
Marincin-Barrie
Dermott-Holl

Hyman, Petan

Andersen
Hutchinson