Leafs lose captain at least two weeks with broken finger

John Tavares will be out of the Maple Leafs’ lineup for at least two weeks, if not longer.

The Leafs announced on Thursday their captain suffered a broken finger late in the club’s 4-3 loss in Washington against the Capitals on Wednesday.

Tavares was hit on his right hand by a shot from the point by teammate Morgan Rielly in the third period, but stayed in the game, and even scored a goal at the 17:27 mark.

In a short statement, the Leafs, who didn’t practice on Thursday, said Tavares will be out a minimum of two weeks, at which point he’ll be reassessed by the team’s medical staff.

How coach Mike Babcock plans to proceed will become clearer at practice today. At the least, centre Jason Spezza is bound to get back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch in five games to start the 2019-20 season.

In eight games, Tavares, named captain on opening night, has three goals and seven points.

Tavares, now in his 11th NHL season, has been relatively healthy throughout his career.

Based on the prognosis, Tavares will miss at least six games, including a pair of matches against the Boston Bruins, who visit the Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.

Of all people who hated watching the Leafs lose that playoff series to the Bruins last season, perhaps the most frustrated was Justin Holl from his front-row seat.

A defenceman employed just 11 times all year, he didn’t see the ice as the club crashed and burned in a series they could have won. Holl made all three April trips to TD Garden, yet saw the ice only for the game day skate, spending each night stuck in the press box.

“It was very tough when you’re sitting there watching,” said Holl, who should make his sixth start of this month on Saturday in the first regular-season rematch with Boston.

“Everyone knows the history. All you want to do is be out there. You’re helpless, in that sense. But this is a new year and I hope to keep it going.”

With Holl, Martin Marincin, Cody Ceci or maybe the six-footfour Kevin Gravel, the Leafs will certainly have more blue-line size against Boston than when Ron Hainsey and Nikita Zaitsev were here.

Another key figure in the series, Jake Gardiner, is now in Carolina.

Up front, Alexander Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev and Dmytro Timashov will also get their first look at Boston as Leafs.

However, Babcock might decide Spezza or Nic Petan gets involved now that Tavares is injured.

“In this league, it doesn’t matter who you play every night, there’s nothing to pick between the teams,” said the coach. “Night after night, you’re in a real grind.”

A second game against Boston on the road is sandwiched into the Leafs’ schedule on Tuesday, the night after they host Columbus. That Jackets game could be backup goaltender Michael Hutchinson’s next start, as he looks for his first win and an opportunity to improve on that ugly .886 save percentage.

The way the unguarded Capitals were able to tee off on him Wednesday should be taken into account, but Hutchinson’s play is an area of concern. Just give him some time is his response to his critics.

“On all four goals (against Washington), there’s something you would like to do differently, or something you would like to have back,” the veteran netminder said.

“That first one (a Jakub Vrana rocket), if I get a bigger piece of that, maybe the game goes a little different. That’s just the nature of the position. The results aren’t there right now, but they’re going to be coming.”

Hutchinson doesn’t want to overthink the effects of a steady diet of back-to-backs, even as Babcock quotes statistical research that the team playing the second of consecutive games has won less than a third of them this season if the other club is rested.

“My mentality doesn’t change, my job doesn’t change, whether it’s the second game of a back-toback, or the first when the team’s rested,” Hutchinson said. “Your job is to stop the puck.”

Give another gold star to Mikheyev, who made a third-period appearance on a line with Tavares and Mitch Marner in Washington. Babcock used Kasperi Kapanen and Trevor Moore in that left-wing role the past couple of games.

“We’re trying to get that line to go,” Babcock said. “Moving guys around, I don’t know how great that is, either, but I thought (Mikheyev) had great legs and was flying.”

Tavares is impressed with Mikheyev’s wheels.

“His speed and his hockey sense, especially making the transition as a young player from overseas to the style of game here, has been good,” the captain said.

“He has good instincts to read the play, hit the holes and put the puck in the right area.”