Maple Leafs' Gavin McKenna talks benching, Tavares injury - Sportsnet.ca

Gavin McKenna played just six minutes and 36 seconds during the Maple Leafs’ 5-4 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night at Scotiabank Arena. His last shift came midway through the second period. “We had those penalties, I wanted to get him out there, he sat through the penalties, and then I didn’t get him out there through that stretch,” head coach Jim Hiller explained. “And then the last few minutes of the period, we were just trying to get out of the period, I guess you would say, and now I’ve sat him for so long, and he sits in the intermission. So, I probably should’ve got him out there early in the third. I didn’t, so I’ll talk to him about that.”The Leafs were shorthanded twice in the second half of the second period with Oliver Ekman-Larsson getting whistled for high sticking at 14:35 and Morgan Rielly getting called for hooking at 18:07. Zach Benson was called for interference at 18:33, which ended the second Buffalo power play after 26 seconds. McKenna, the first overall pick in the 2026 draft, is not part of Toronto’s penalty-kill rotation. Between the Ekman-Larsson penalty and the Rielly penalty, Kirill Marchenko scored to give the Leafs a 4-2 lead.

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed that Shohei Ohtani will remain part of the team's lineup for Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Toronto Maple Leafs forward John Tavares is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, the team announced on Saturday. The week-to-week designation means that he is expected to miss up to six weeks, according to the team. Tavares was injured during the team’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday in the third period after awkwardly colliding with Sabres forward Josh Norris. The 36-year-old centre remained down on the ice after the collision before skating off while favouring his left leg. Nick Paul slotted in as the team’s No. 2 centre during Saturday’s morning skate in Tavares’ absence in between Easton Cowan and Kirill Marchenko. Additionally, rookie Gavin McKenna took Tavares’ spot on the top power-play unit with Darren Raddysh, Auston Matthews, and William Nylander. Tavares has two goals and seven points in seven games early this season. He led the team with 31 goals last season to go along with 71 points and appeared in all 82 games for the first time since his first season with the Maple Leafs in 2018-19. The Maple Leafs sit sixth in the Atlantic Division with a 3-3-2 record as they get set to take on the New York Islanders on Saturday night.

IN today’s NHL injury news update, the status of Chris Tanev in Toronto remains unclear and the team might have lost another key player in John Tavares. Meanwhile, Jason Dickinson was unable to play on Thursday vs the Utah Mammoth, but the coach said it wasn’t an ankle injury, which everyone assumed it was. Finally, there is a list of approximately a dozen other issues facing several NHL teams. The Maple Leafs will be without veteran defenseman Chris Tanev for the foreseeable future. Toronto placed Tanev on injured reserve, retroactive to October 10, after he left Saturday’s win over the Colorado Avalanche with an upper-body injury following a collision with Artturi Lehkonen.

TORONTO — Owen Power had the overtime winner as the Buffalo Sabres reeled off three unanswered goals to rally past the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Thursday. Jack Quinn had a pair of goals for Buffalo (4-3-1) before Dennis Gilbert and Mattias Samuelsson scored in the third to tie it 4-4. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 26 shots in net for the win. Kirill Marchenko had a hat trick, the fifth of his career, in his 300th NHL game to give Toronto (3-3-2) a 4-2 lead. Auston Matthews opened the scoring and John Tavares added two assists before the Sabres battled back in the third. Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves for the Maple Leafs. Marchenko was traded by the Columbus Blue Jackets to Toronto on Sept. 28, just before the season began and had only scored once in a Maple Leafs sweater before Thursday’s game. Tavares left the game early in the third after he collided with Buffalo forward Josh Norris. The former Toronto captain appeared to favour his left leg as he skated off the ice.