Injury kayoes Gunnarsson
Leaf D-man to miss out on world championship
With two games left in their season, the Maple Leafs will have to play Tampa Bay and Montreal without one of their top defencemen.
Carl Gunnarsson, 25, suffered a separated left shoulder in Tuesday’s 6-5 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
“That probably means a four-tosix week time frame for rehabilitation before he’s back to 100 per cent,” Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said after practice Wednesday. “It also takes him out of any opportunity to play (for Sweden) in the world hockey championships.”
It’s a big disappointment for Gunnarsson because the world championships are being held in Sweden and Finland.
Gunnarsson has arguably been Toronto’s most dependable blueliner all season but he suffered the injury after a thundering bodycheck from Sabres rookie Marcus Foligno just 12 seconds into Tuesday’s game.
The hit behind the Toronto net knocked his helmet off. He went to the bench and returned for his next shift but never skated again.
A crestfallen Gunnarsson was upset that his season had ended but more upset that Leafs had missed the playoffs again despite how well he played and the confidence shown in him by the coaching staff.
“We’re not making the playoffs again this year so I’m not happy about that,” he said after practice in the Leaf dressing room.
Gunnarsson also blamed himself for getting injured.
“I didn’t protect myself the way I should have,” he said. “Situations like that happen during the season. It was just a bad move by me.”
Meanwhile, it looks as if David Steckel will be ready to return Thursday for Leafs’ final home game of the season against the Lightning. Steckel skated at practice after missing the past few games with a knee injury. Although centre Mikhail Grabovski wasn’t at practice, Carlyle expects he will take the game day skate. Grabovski suffered a gash to his knee from a skate in Saturday’s game against Buffalo.