Suspicious announcement on John Klingberg ahead of tonight’s game

Let’s tell it like it is : the John Klingberg experiment has been an abject failure in Toronto, just 13 games into the season. Soon after his disastrous performance against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday, talks emerged that Klingberg should be a healthy scratch or even on his way out of Toronto.

On Friday ahead of tonight’s contest against the visiting Calgary Flames, it’s been announced that Klingberg will not be in the Maple Leafs’ lineup, though a reason for his absence has miraculously been brought up.

Head coach Sheldon Keefe has announced that defenseman Jake McCabe is back in the fold tonight while Klingberg draws out. However, the latter is apparently sidelined, making a point to say it is injury-related.

“Working through some things.”

Fans aren’t buying the “working through some things” bit, though some are making blunt comments on how he needs to re-learn how to play hockey on the back end.

The 31 year old defenseman was signed as a free agent by the Maple Leafs this past offseason, inking a one year, $4.15 million deal on the opening day of free agency. So far he has five assists in 13 games to start the campaign with the Leafs, which doesn’t sound awful, but he’s been a defensive black hole since game 1. He sports a brutal -8 +/- stat line and is amongst the worst defensemen in the league by defensive metrics and analytics.

Maybe the time off will do him some good, though I’m not sure he is taking full accountability for his poor start if the Maple Leafs and Keefe are protecting him with the injury angle.

Let’s see how McCabe can help, as he returned after missing six games. He has been held off the scoresheet this season while recording a minus-4 rating, 12 hits and nine blocks in seven contests.

Let’s hope he can boost Toronto’s blue line against the Flames later tonight…

Recommended articles:

• Report: Klingberg may be done in Toronto already
• Report: Leafs missed out on major upgrade, opted for John Klingberg instead
• Maple Leafs humiliated by performance against Sens
• Leafs D John Klingberg hits back at his haters
• Sheldon Keefe calls out Maple Leafs defense