Mitch Marner exhaled and said out loud what so many within the Toronto Maple Leafs organization were probably thinking.
“We’re missing half our team up front, man,” Marner said when asked what his ailing Leafs team must do to score more at five-on-five.
The score in the Leafs’ 5-1 loss to the Florida Panthers made the game seem far more lopsided than it was. If the Leafs had iced a lineup they hope will be ready to face teams like the Panthers in the playoffs, a 5-1 loss might have alarm bells ringing.
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And now the Leafs can add Bobby McMann to their list of players nursing wounds. The left winger was on a decent run of form playing on a new-look top line with John Tavares and Marner. But McMann did not return to the game for the second period with what the Leafs are calling a lower-body injury.