Maple Leafs’ Rielly out with an upper-body injury, misses game against the Devils.
Morgan Rielly of the Toronto Maple Leafs controls the puck against the Anaheim Ducks.
Morgan Rielly wasn’t in the Maple Leafs lineup on Tuesday night.
Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe expressed optimism in the morning that the club’s top defenseman will play against the New Jersey Devils at Scotiabank Arena.
Shortly after Rielly missed the pre-game warmup, the Leafs confirmed that the 30-year-old was out with an upper-body injury.
It was unclear when Rielly sustained the injury. In the Leafs’ 2-1 loss to the Hurricanes in Carolina on Sunday night, he played more than 24 minutes.
You may recall that the Leafs did well without Rielly in February, going 5-0 while Rielly served a five-game ban for cross-checking Ottawa Senators forward Ridly Greig on February 10.
The Leafs were also without defenseman Joel Edmundson, who played just under 15 minutes in Carolina. Edmundson’s injury had not been reported, and Keefe indicated that he would not play in the Leafs’ three games this week.
With Rielly and Edmundson out, the Toronto defence pairings were TJ Brodie-Ilya Lyubushkin, Jake McCabe-Timothy Liljegren, and Simon Benoit-Conor Timmins.
The encounter on Tuesday was the first of three meetings between the Leafs and the Devils in 2023-24. The clubs will meet two more times during the next few weeks.