Chris Tanev ramps up practice as Leafs get some good injury news

The Maple Leafs aren’t avoiding black cats or walking under ladders as their bad luck with injuries continues.

Both their goaltenders are now on IR with two top-six defencemen, but there was a good sign Saturday morning when Chris Tanev was the first man on the ice for the skate, albeit in a no-contact red jersey.

“Tanny got looked at this week and hopefully it’s good news,” Berube said of his workhorse blueliner, who was stretchered off the ice in Philadelphia five weeks ago with an upper body injury. It was his second after an early-season concussion.

“Hopefully he can get more involved. It was great to see both of them out here (Tanev and defenceman Marshall Rifai, who underwent pre-season wrist surgery).”

That still leaves Brandon Carlo unaccounted for, after the defenceman was hurt Nov. 13. He and goalie Anthony Stolarz (Carlo lower body, Stolarz upper body) were just joined on IR by Joseph Woll for at least a week.

“I’ve been involved in this before, I don’t get surprised by another injury,” Craig Berube said of such streaks in his 10 NHL coaching seasons. “It’s part of (hockey), it’s tough for sure. But other guys are coming in, stepping up and that’s the job. That’s why you have extra players, filling holes and getting opportunity.”

The strange part about this year’s string of absences is that there didn’t appear to be anything outwardly amiss when so many of them were downed, other than Tanev getting belted. Captain Auston Matthews injured himself trying to throw a hit and winger Steven Lorentz has had a couple of upper-body issues on freak plays.

“Depends on how you look at it,” Lorentz said. “It’s definitely frustrating to go through that when it might be a minor bump or a play that doesn’t (impact a game). But things happen, right? It’s a fast game where you’re moving your body really quick. You tweak or move in one direction and something cracks.

“At the end of the day there are some things you can’t control. This is the tough part of our business, a physical game where things happen. You might stay healthy for months, then it might be three guys hurt in just a couple of days.”

From Dennis Hildeby in net, to waiver pick up Troy Stecher on defence, to the extra workload put on rookie Easton Cowan, the Leafs were able to get through the recent six-game road trip with a 4-2 record. It could also be said there was a reckoning among some veterans who’d not been contributing to step it up with the Leafs losing five straight just before the trip.

“It’s easy to say it’s all about the next man up, but guys here realize it is a chance to step in and contribute to something special,” Lorentz said.

A stretch of five games at home now could also ease the impact of the injuries. The Leafs were glad to be back in Scotiabank Arena for the first time since Nov. 20.

Defenceman Morgan Rielly gets to celebrate his 900th regular season NHL game, becoming just the eighth Leaf to reach that number and Berube was asked to address a minor hockey coaches’ open house at SBA that went on concurrently with them watching his practice.

“There were a lot of (questions) why I got into coaching, why I love it and why I wanted to be involved in the game,” Berube said. “There was nothing better than playing. I did that a long time for which I was fortunate. I wanted to stay in the locker room, be part of a team.

“That’s the best thing in the world in my opinion.”

The query Berube fields the most from prospective coaches is how he coaxes accountability from players and how frequently bench bosses should move around players or switch strategies.

“It’s just my opinion, but too many coaches want to ‘change, change, change’ and try new things. It’s not about that. It’s about sticking to the process and beating it into your team. Not (physically), but to tell them this is the way we want to do things. You can’t jump around and change things all the time because they’re not working. For me, it’s ‘keep banging away at it’.”

Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby