The Toronto Maple Leafs released an injury update on former captain John Tavares, days after Auston Matthews returned to action for the 2024-25 NHL season.

Squaring off with nearly identical records entering Wednesday’s contest, the Toronto Maple Leafs were presented with a key opportunity to get out of a rut against a quality Minnesota Wild team, with a four-game road trip on the horizon before the 4 Nations Face-Off break.

Tavares sustained a lower-body injury last week and Craig Berube updated the status of several Maple Leafs players.

Does John Tavares get enough love from Toronto Maple Leafs fans? It would seem that Nick Kypreos doesn’t think so. During a recent Real Kyper and Bourne episode, hosts Kypreos and Justin Bourne discussed how much the Maple Leafs will miss their ex-captain.

The New Jersey Devils invested a lot to make sure their goaltending situation was stable in 2024-25. They acquired Jacob Markstrom fro the Calgary Flames in a blockbuster trade, but now New Jersey will be without its starting goaltender for several weeks.

You can look to John Tavares and Matthew Knies’ imminent returns and hope they can spark the lineup, but this is still a team with Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner. Offence should not be this difficult and they have the raw talent to at least make games interesting. Tonight was far from it.

Morgan Rielly is used to contributing with the puck on his stick. The Maple Leafs defenceman had a career-high 68 points a couple of years back and chipped in another 58 last season as part of a well-oiled attack.

Nations, facing off. That is what will happen when the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off kicks off in mid-February, replacing the NHL All-Star Game. The tournament

When: Wednesday, 7 p.m., Scotiabank Arena TV: Sportsnet Radio: The Fan 590 Odds: Wild +119, Maple Leafs -147 The buzz After winning four in a row from Dec. 31 to Jan. 7, the Wild has lost six of its past nine games,

For the third consecutive outing, all the Leafs could manage was a single goal versus their opponent, dropping a 3-1 decision to the Wild.

Identifying the holes in the Leafs' lineup is fairly straightforward. Patching them at the trade deadline? Much less so.

John Hynes knows that William Nylander can lead the Maple Leafs out of the little hole they’ve dug for themselves. The Leafs have scored just two goals in losing their past two games, and neither came off the stick of Nylander after the star winger had four goals in the previous three games, all Toronto victories.