Muzzin will be absent Saturday night and that could lead to some interesting D pairings

First things first, we have confirmation that the Leafs will be without Muzzin against Philadelphia.

Despite the report of Muzzin having a charley horse injury that saw him leave the game Tuesday night and keep him out of practice this week, it is in fact personal reasons that Muzzin won’t play. The last thing we want to do is speculate on what those could be and instead we’ll just wish all the best to Muzzin and hope to see him back in a Leafs uniform soon.

Having Muzzin back in a Leafs uniform really soon should be the goal because that’s lead to the following change…

Yep, everyone’s favourite defenseman Martin Marincin will be playing with Barrie. I’m pretty sure this essentially makes the Dermott-Holl pairing the 2nd pairing.

We probably wouldn’t be so bummed about these pairings and would have expected it be what happened, but Paul Hendrick sent out these far more appealing combos before correcting them…

The Rielly-Holl combo and Dermott-Ceci pairings both make a ton of sense, but I guess no matter how we slice it we were going to get Marincin with Barrie. I would be nice to see something new tried out in the near future, but for now getting Muzzin back would be the biggest improvement.

If you are looking for any other silver linings, Tavares was practicing on a game line today, and Zach Hyman will be traveling with the team to Philadelphia, a likely sign we’ll see him this week, along with a bit of player movement.