John Tavares helped off vs. Sabres as Leafs injuries pile up

It happened at Scotiabank Arena on the first night of a 3-game homestand, and the first word from the building was not good.

David Pagnotta

@TheFourthPeriod

Tavares in a lot of pain after a collision with a Sabres player. Took a while to get up - he’s heading to the room

Taking a while to get up is not what you want to hear about a veteran center, and the next report made it worse. Tavares didn't skate off on his own. Teammates had to help him off.

Terry Koshan 🇺🇦

@koshtorontosun

Tavares being helped off, goes to room #Leafs

There's no word yet on what's hurt or whether he's coming back tonight, and nobody should guess until the Leafs say something. What we do know is he was just getting settled again. Tavares missed the Colorado game last Saturday for the birth of his son Tucker, his 4th kid. Before that he had 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) through Toronto's first 5 games.

That same Colorado game is where the Leafs lost Tanev. He left in the 1st period of the 6-3 win with an upper-body injury, went on IR retroactive to Oct. 10, and the team called him week-to-week on Thursday. Before he got hurt he led Toronto with 14 blocked shots. Jim Hiller's answer was basically next man up: "Tanev is a good player, that's well-established, but we have other good players. We just have to help them out."

Now the depth chart has to cover a center too. When Tavares sat out vs. the Avs, Nick Paul moved into his top-6 spot, so expect that again if this keeps him out. It also comes at a bad time. Toronto came home off a 5-4 loss in Utah to finish its western road trip, and Buffalo had won 3 of the last 4 meetings between these 2 teams.

Next up is the postgame update, and probably the bad mood around it. One defenseman down for weeks is something the Leafs can handle. Losing Tavares on top of it, 7 games into the season, would put real pressure on Auston Matthews, who came into the night with 12 points in 7 games, to carry the whole thing.