The downside of this activation is that Muzzin has been officially de-activated. With Johnsson on LTIR since his injury in early December, Jake Muzzin has just been sitting on the playing roster as an extra since his injury in late December.

In order to make enough room to re-activate Johnsson, Muzzin is now on LTIR, not merely IR. Even assuming that’s backdated to the date of his injury, we won’t see him back on the Leafs roster until after the horrible bye-week/All-Star Leafs hockey desert is over at the end of this month.

The official word is that Johnsson is a game-time decision, so he might cause the lines to get shifted around a little. The expected lines without Johnsson are here:

Preview: Maple Leafs visit the Florida Panthers

In other news we’ve been too — well, lazy is a harsh term, and yet it fits, but how about we call it differently-focused — to post, Mitch Marner got voted in to the All-Star game thrilling... someone, likely.

Look, the All-Star game jumped the shark before the term “jumped the shark” jumped the shark. The three-on-three was fun exactly one-and-a-half times, and now it’s actually tortuous to watch. The only good All-Star Game in my memory is the one where Ovi got drunk during their hilariously meta draft thing they never did again because the realized Jonathan Toews was possibly a communist and, to be clear, when he grows up and runs the NHLPA, the NHL will be in for a ride.

In news I’m just too irritated to post about, the HNIC crew managed to find a Toronto topic to add to their only news for last night’s Toronto-less HNIC. The story is that the New York Rangers “will listen” to offers on Alexander Georgiev, their third goalie. They want a forward who is in the NHL or ready for the NHL, so naturally Leafs fans have already traded Jeremy Bracco to the Rags for this actually-proven NHL-capable goalie prospect.

Do the Leafs want him? Sure, why not? He’s affordable now. He might not be next season after he exercises his arbitration rights, but that’s then.

Do the Rangers really want to trade him? Sure, if they’re dumb. They aren’t making the playoffs, they don’t “need help up front” now. They need to build for the future, and they don’t know what the 37-year-old (about to be 38) Henrik Lundqvist will do with his last season under contract next year. Should the Rangers just roll with their young tandem? Yes! Will they? Who knows; they’ve done some blindingly dumb things, and some really smart things.

It’s possible the Rangers simply believe they can’t afford two good young goalies and Georgiev’s market value is highest now. It’s also possible that every damn team is “willing to listen” on every damn player, bar about three guys in the league, and this is all just as meaningful as the fact that Kyle Dubas got bored one day and made a pitch to Justin Williams to see if he could get the man’s agent to laugh out loud at whatever the hell the bonus-free no-salary proposal was.

Per the internet, the going rate for the imaginary services of Georgiev is Bracco and a third, so what’s your pitch? What are you trading to fulfill the Leafs-fan obsession for a backup goalie?

What are you offering for Alexandar Georgiev?

Michael Hutchinson and a seventh22
Cody Ceci and a sixth36
Tyson Barrie and a fifth9
Pierre Engvall and a fourth2
Jeremy Bracco and a third39
Justin Holl and a second2

In news related to this game, the Panthers called up:

And so Hardev will have the recap because he is the only person on staff who can spell that. Lucky for him, Chris Driedger will start.

Okay, now buckle up and let’s play with cats. What could possibly go wrong?

Game Coverage