All NHL clubs provide as little information as they can regarding injuries; the Toronto Maple Leafs are no different. It was in fact, former Leafs GM/head coach and lawyer Pat Quinn who originated the dreaded non-specific upper and lower body descriptor, but in the wake of the long laundry list of ailments that Toronto has encountered over the last few weeks, their lack of information regarding key players and the timeframe for their return has become infuriating to fans.
In instances like Chris Tanev’s concussion issues, it is difficult to give a hard and fast date of return, and no one would blame the Leafs for being non-committal on when he will be back, but there are others not in action whose timetables are being held closer to the vest than the details of US covert military operations.
The most egregious examples of this are the injuries to Auston Matthews and Anthony Stolarz. With Matthews, the revealing of his health issues seems to be a sore spot going back to the pandemic, when Steve Simmons revealed he had COVID, but over the last few years, whatever ailments he has had have been cloaked in secrecy. All we have found out about the recent issue, which occurred in Boston on November 11, is that it is not the same thing that he has dealt with in the past.
That’s great, but we do not know definitively what he was dealing with all last season, which kept him out for two significant stretches, was a direct cause of his career-worst 33-goal output, and contributed to his underwhelming performance in the playoffs. At the start of training camp, Matthews said he was healthy; that is all that was said. If it were known what exactly was wrong, there would be a timetable for said injury, but all we know is that he is “close”, according to head coach Craig Berube, which could mean that he will be back on Wednesday against Columbus, but that could mean the weekend, or next week, or next month.
Stolarz left the same game at TD Garden, where it was thought was being pulled for playing terribly (which he was), we then find out it was due to a non-specific upper-body injury. We then get an update from Berube that he’s “a ways away”, but there are still no specifics as to what the injury is and what the hell “a ways away” means.
Matthew Knies and Nicolas Roy have been on the ice with Matthews, and although Knies was a late scratch last week, his issue appears to be a short-term thing, while next to nothing is known about Brandon Carlo’s injury.
The Leafs have no obligation to be more revealing, but with their season hanging in the balance on what they do in the next couple of weeks on the road, their fans would like to know if they can expect any help from players currently out.
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