You may have heard, but the Blues are down another player thanks to Covid-19 protocols. Pavel Buchnevich, who scored the Blues’ game winning goal on Thursday night, was placed in protocols yesterday. As of the time of this writing, he joins David Perron, Colton Parayko, Scott Perunovich, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Brayden Schenn as the sizable chunk of the payroll currently absent.
The Leafs have gotten Mitch Marner and Pierre Engvall back as of yesterday, but lost Ondrej Case, Nick Ritchie, and Justin Holl.
The Maple Leafs have been a very strong team, but the Atlantic Division is as much of a pile-up as the Central is.