NHL News: Leafs lose Mikheyev to hand injury; Toews looks ready for opener; and preseason scores
Anthony Scultore
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The Toronto Maple Leafs received some initial bad news on Ilya Mikheyev’s hand injury. According to head coach Sheldon Keefe, they expect him to be out for some time. A more definitive timeline is expected in the coming days.
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Ilya Mikheyev expected to be out after injuring hand
Late in the first period, Mikheyev was hit into the boards and came up grimacing in pain. The 27 year-old went to the bench but was removed from the game.
This is a blow to both him and the Leafs as he was expected to take on a much larger role with the departures of Zach Hyman and Joe Thornton. Since joining the Leafs, he’s played in 93 games notching 40 points while averaging 14:47 of ice time over two seasons.
Jonathan Toews scores twice; looks good for opener
Last December, the Blackhawks announced that Jonathan Toews would be out indefinitely. At the time, all that was revealed was the symptom of chronic fatigue. This summer, Hawks captain said he had been battling with Chronic Immune Response Syndrome.
“What they were calling is was Chronic Immune Response syndrome, where I couldn’t just quite recover,” Toews explained. “My immune system was reacting to everything I did – any kind of stress – it took some time. That was the frustrating part, not really knowing when or how I was going to get over the hump.”
Toews, 33, scored twice in the Blackhawks final preseason game and looks ready to play hockey after missing all of last season.
“I plan to play, but it’s not my decision,” Toews said before the game. “But I don’t think that’s up in the air, I’m pretty sure.” Hawks head coach Jeremy Colliton noted that’s what they plan on.
If there were any doubts, Toews certainly erased those.
NHL Preseason Scores
The NHL slate was pretty full last night with 11 contests on tap. Here’s the results:
- Rangers 5 vs Islanders 4 OT (Filip Chytil hat trick)
- Sabres 3 vs Red Wings 1 (Jeff Skiner picked up his 3rd assist of preseason)
- Predators 4 vs Hurricanes 3 (Filip Forsberg scored his 3rd of the preseason)
- Lightning 4 vs Panthers 2 (Pat Maroon scored twice, 4th of preseason)
- Avs 4 vs Stars 2 (Nathan MacKinnon scored twice)
- Leafs 4 vs Sens 1 (Morgan Rielly 1G, 1A)
- Penguins 4 vs Blue Jackets 3 OT (Max Domi scores in preseason debut)
- Sharks 4 vs Golden Knights 0 (Adin Hill 25 save shutout)
- Blackhawks 5 vs Wild 1 (Toews scores twice)
- Oilers 3 vs Canucks 2 (Elias Pettersson picks up second assist of preseason)
- Ducks 4 vs Kings 3 SO (Trevor Zegras 1G, 2A, 7 points in preseason)
