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Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin suffered an injury in the Saturday shootout win over the New York Rangers.
Lyubushkin was hit hard by Matt Rempe, and the defensemen left the game with a head injury. It was reported that the injury was as severe as originally thought, and that turned out to be the case.
"He's a little bit hurt, but I think he's good. He's good right now & he has time for recovery a little bit," said Leafs' goaltender Ilya Samsonov, via TSN.
On Monday, Toronto Maple Leafs reporter Mark Masters revealed that Lyubushkin was on the ice for a morning skate.
Whether or not he will play on Monday is uncertain, but Lyubushkin being on the ice for morning skate is a good sign. After he left the game with an injury, Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe was also frustrated with the hit and not a call being made.
"Comes a long way. Leaves his feet," Keefe said of the hit. "Hits him in the head. Injury."
Ilya Lyubushkin excited to be back with Toronto
Ilya Lyubushkin was re-acquired by the Toronto Maple Leafs last week to help add some stability to their defense. He will add a physical presence to the lineup, and he's excited to be back with the Maple Leafs:
"I'm super excited. It's easy to join this team for me because I know this organization, I know these guys," Lyubushkin said, via HockeyNews. "My teammates, it's unbelievable."
Lyubushkin will be back playing with Morgan Reilly, which Keefe says will be the plan going forward.
"They just seemed to compliment each other well," Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said.
"Lyubushkin, himself, at that time, brought a lot to our team in terms of physicality and competitiveness and just being hard to enter our zone, hard to be around our net, which was something that we really needed at that time, and I think we still need it.
"I think we've improved in that area with just our team mindset and some of our personnel, (Jake) McCabe and (Simon) Benoit, and Lyubushkin will add to that. But it also just seemed to compliment Morgan well and bring out the best in him."
This season, Ilya Lyubushkin has just four points in 56 games.
