Multiple absences at Maple Leafs practice

The Toronto Maple Leafs are back in action tonight at Scotiabank Arena this evening against the New Jersey Devils, who have seen their playoff hopes fade over the recent stretch. 

However, the Maple Leafs found themselves shorthanded at this morning's skate, as defensemen Morgan Rielly and Joel Edmundson were absent; Rielly has been described as a game time decision, while Edmundson will not be able to play tonight. 

Head coach Sheldon Keefe provided the following updates: 

"Rielly is day-to-day — not ruled out for tonight, but we will see how he is later today," he said. "Even if doesn’t go today, it is a day-to-day type of situation. It is not an illness." 

It is the same with Edmundson. I would say he is not available tonight, and I wouldn’t expect him this week."

The Maple Leafs find themselves with nine defenseman following the NHL Trade Deadline, how do the Leafs plan on keeping them all involved? 

"It is moot at this point (with injuries and illnesses), but today is the first day that Mark Giordano is available to the team or eligible to come off of LTI," Keefe said. "We had eight defensemen, for the most part, but now we are at nine and some guys are unavailable. We have been approaching it more with the eight guys.

I would definitely like to keep guys involved. We have seen how we handled some of the back-to-backs and made sure guys stayed in. We need everybody — on forward or defense — and guys must stay ready. When you bring in two new defensemen, it sort of changes the mix a little bit with our group.

Those guys need reps. Other guys need reps playing with them. Timmins is coming off of long injuries and illness. He hasn’t played a lot this season. With Gio, it is the same kind of thing. We have been talking about Brodie’s situation, too."

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