TORONTO — Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock thinks star rookie Mitch Marner is ready to return to the lineup, but the team will hold the 19-year-old forward out for a fifth consecutive game Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens.
Marner was a light participant in Saturday’s morning skate, filling the role of extra defenceman and penalty killer.
“He looks to me like he’s the best player out there today so I don’t know why he’s not dressed tonight,” Babcock said.
Marner is nursing a suspected right shoulder injury. He’s still listed as day-to-day.
Babcock recently suggested, with some frustration, that Marner is being held out at the insistence of the team’s medical staff, which includes a sports science division.
“That’s why they have these doctors and these trainers is because the coach and the player (think he could) be playing today,” he said earlier this week. “But they don’t let us get involved in the equation and we save ourselves from ourselves.”
The Leafs could also be without Tyler Bozak against the Canadiens. The 30-year-old did not practise Friday and did not skate again on Saturday morning (undisclosed) and will be a game-time decision, according to Babcock.
His void would be filled by veteran centre Ben Smith, a healthy scratch the previous two games.
The Leafs are 2-1-1 without Marner, who was second on the team with 48 points entering play Saturday night. He suffered the injury when he fell awkwardly into the boards in a Feb. 15 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Toronto has lost 13 straight games to Montreal. After Saturday night’s game, the Leafs will head to California for a three-game road trip.
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