Craig Berube Teases the Idea that one of the Core Four Players May Have to Play Defence Tonight

The Toronto Maple Leafs will go into the match on Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens with a weakened blue line and perhaps an empty seat or two on the bench.

Five defensemen remain on the roster after Oliver Ekman-Larsson became the third defenseman in as many games to be put on the injured list, joining Jake McCabe and David Kampf.

All three are day-to-day, but as they usually do when it's this late in the season, day-to-day becomes an eternity.

Ekman-Larsson played over 25 minutes Wednesday night in the thrilling 4-3 overtime win over Tampa Bay, but did not participate in the skate on Friday morning.

McCabe skated on his own but will miss his fourth straight contest, and Kampf remains out too. There are fewer than 10 games in the regular season left, and the Leafs cannot call upon long-term injured reserve in an effort to make cap space.

Toronto has merely $195,332 of space available under the cap, not enough for a league-minimum player.

Because of that, head coach Craig Berube said they may have to be inventive by dressing just five defensemen and likely moving one of their forwards back there to help on the blue line. One option? Mitch Marner.

The versatile winger has played spot duty on the backend before and might help shore up that deficiency in an emergency.

Seventh defenseman Philippe Myers continues to be in the rotation but played just 7:19 in Wednesday's victory, an indication Berube still isn't comfortable playing him much.

Aside from that, the Leafs will look to add to their lead atop the Atlantic Division with a win against their archrivals.