Maple Leafs deny Darnell Nurse his chance at revenge.

Fans in Edmonton who have been waiting months for a chance at revenge may be left sorely disappointed thanks to the Toronto Maple Leafs later tonight.

Earlier in the season a clash between Canadian rivals the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers resulted in one of the most devastating, and most controversial, hits of the 2024-25 National Hockey League regular season. I am of course talking about the devastating hit that was delivered by Maple Leafs enforcer Ryan Reaves to Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse.

If for some reason you still haven't seen the hit, here it is:

Reaves would receive a 5 game suspension as a result of the hit and by all accounts genuinely felt bad about the incident, with reports indicating that Reaves even sought out Nurse immediately following the hit to personally apologize to him face to face, but many fans had circled Saturday February the 1st's clash between the Leafs and Oilers as the date that Nurse and the Oilers would finally get their shot at revenge.

Unfortunately it would seem as though the Maple Leafs may not have much interest in giving Nurse and the Oilers their shot at revenge with indications on Friday that Reaves may not even be in the lineup on Saturday. Here is how the Maple Leafs lineup looked based on their morning skate from Friday:

Knies - Matthews - Marner
Pacioretty - Tavares - Nylander
McMann - Domi - Robertson
Holmberg - Kampf - Lorentz
Reaves

McCabe - Tanev
Rielly - Ekman-Larsson
Benoit - Timmins
Myers

Woll

As you can see Reaves is not a part of any of the forward lines.

Reaves not being in the lineup will certainly make it impossible for Nurse to get his revenge against the man in any kind of personal manner, but it does leave me to wonder if vengeance will still be front and center in the minds of the Edmonton Oilers. If Reaves isn't on the ice will the Oilers simply direct their vengeance at another player on the Maple Leafs roster?