The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that defenseman Jake McCabe has left Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers with an upper-body injury.
McCabe sustained the injury late in the first period of the game during a fight with Flyers winger Garnet Hathaway. As the two were fighting, McCabe fell and appeared to hit his head upon impact with the ice, and was struggling to get back up after the fight. He immediately went to the dressing room with assistance, and the Leafs confirmed that he was out for the rest of the game at the start of the second period.
McCabe also missed five games in December after taking a puck to the head on November 30th against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
McCabe left the game with a hit and 7 penalty minutes that he received from the fight in 7:12 of ice time, with the Leafs up 2-1 at the time of his departure.
With McCabe out of the lineup, Simon Benoit has substituted him in the top four alongside Chris Tanev. The two have held the competition even in goals at 1-1 and have a 31.2% 5v5 expected goal share (xGF%) in 42:54 of ice time.
The Leafs will have to hope that McCabe won’t miss any significant time with this injury, as he’s been one of their best defensemen this season. Heading into Sunday’s game, he had 1 goal and 10 assists for 11 points in 35 games, as well as a 52.25% 5v5 xGF% that’s second among Leafs defensemen.
Should McCabe find himself out of the lineup, Conor Timmins was the lone Leafs’ healthy scratch on the blueline and will probably slot into the lineup in his place. Timmins has 1 goal and 6 assists for 7 points in 34 games this season.
The Leafs entered Sunday’s game having won four of their last five games, and were first in the Atlantic Division with a 25-13-2 record.