The Toronto Maple Leafs have put James Reimer on injured reserve with “concussion like symptoms.” The Leafs, who will now ride with a guy named The Monster in net, put their young netminder on IR retroactively to last Saturday when he initially suffered the injury.
The good news is that the Leafs have jumped out to a 5-2-1 start that has them sitting atop of the Northeast Division. The team has ridden the hot start of guys like Phil Kessel, Joffrey Lupul, and Dion Phaneuf. But as we saw last season, the Leafs are a different team when they can get decent goaltending. With Reimer officially on the shelf, we’ll see if Toronto can keep up their hot start.
Here’s the scary part for the Leafs. The coaching staff said that he was 100% during yesterday’s practice; but he didn’t feel well after practice. It sounds like he hasn’t recovered in the day since as he was put on IR. Since the roster move is retroactive, Reimer will not be available to pay against the Penguins on Saturday night either. Do you think James Neal is smiling right now?
Toronto has to hope that Reimer’s “concussion like symptoms” are minor and don’t linger like they have for so many other players recently. Look no further than Anaheim’s net to know that head problems for a goaltender can hang over a team for months—it’s something the Maple Leafs wouldn’t be able to overcome.
We’ll know by this weekend if the organization is erring on the side of caution or if this is something fans should really start to worry about. Hey, worst case scenario, we hear that Marty Turco is still available.