Brown, Komisarek Near Return at LinesMaker

Brown, Komisarek Near Return

TORONTO – What will end first, the Maple Leafs’ los­ing streak or the long wait that Mike Brown and Mike Komis­arek have endured on the injured list?

For Toronto’s sake, some Ws beter start appear­ing first, even though the immi­nent return of the duo later in the week would help immensely.

“They’re impact play­ers,” goalie James Reimer said after both made it through a two-hours prac­tice on Mon­day at the Mas­ter­Card Cen­tre. “Their role is huge for our team and our suc­cess. It will be great to have Komo back there, a steady defence­man who blocks shots and does a great job of box­ing guys out. Brownie just works his butt off and does what it takes, every shift.”

Both have been gone weeks, but coach Ron Wil­son cau­tioned it’s too early into their on-ice re-conditioning to expect a return any ear­lier than Saturday’s game against the Red Wings. Wil­son also pointed out that Wednesday’s prac­tice at an out­door com­mu­nity rink before play­ing the Jets won’t likely be a proper test for any play­ers. So the impe­tus to halt a three-game slump will be with most of the play­ers who departed Win­nipeg New Year’s Eve on the wrong end of a 3–2 decision.

“Hey, it’s a brand new year,” Reimer said. “Decem­ber (4–6-3) wasn’t the month we wanted, but the sun came up today.”

A new year meant some new lines with Toronto try­ing to avoid a four-game los­ing streak for the first time in 13 months. Con­cern that lead­ing scorer Phil Kessel was going to be side­lined with a foot injury were eased when he returned with Jof­frey Lupul and Tim Con­nolly, though reg­u­lar first-line cen­tre Tyler Bozak remains on the IR.

Brown’s way back to the lineup was cleared when winger Philippe Dupuis was placed on waivers Mon­day. With the Leafs’ penalty killing at 30th and spe­cial­ist Dupuis being party to the prob­lems and score­less, the move made sense as soon as his bro­ken hand healed. Wil­son said he hopes Dupuis finds his scor­ing touch with the AHL Mar­lies, assum­ing he’s not claimed.

“I’d play tomor­row if they’d let me, but it’s up to the train­ers,” said Brown, who is com­ing off back surgery. Komis­arek, recov­er­ing from a bro­ken arm, hopes to be back by next week for certain.

Left winger Joey Crabb is now play­ing with Russian-speaking Mikhail Grabovski and Niko­lai Kulemin, the lat­ter most in need of a com­ple­men­tary winger. Matt Frat­tin, in a scor­ing funk of his own, was dropped from that line and is now on the fourth unit with Dar­ryl Boyce and David Steckel. Matthew Lom­bardi was between Nazem Kadri and Clarke MacArthur on Monday.

The Leafs take on the Tampa Bay Light­ning Tues­day, herald­ing nine of the next 10 games at home. Oher than say­ing Jonas Gus­tavs­son would be get­ting some starts dur­ing the home­s­tand, Wil­son would not con­firm using him ahead of Reimer on Tuesday.

Our sports betting news features unique sports betting articles as well as current sports news compiled from leading wire services. Our sports bet­ting news fea­tures unique sports bet­ting arti­cles as well as cur­rent sports news com­piled from lead­ing wire ser­vices. This news arti­cle was dis­trib­uted by Syn­di­cated Sports news wire and aggre­ga­tion ser­vice, For more NHL hockey news see: Brown, Komis­arek near return.

Keep updated with real time NHL hockey odds and all the most recent Hockey reports. Along with NHL bet­ting odds, we offer play­ers wager­ing on the Stan­ley Cup Finals, 1st period odds, numer­ous NHL hockey propo­si­tion bets and the daily grand salami.When bet­tors look for NHL hockey odds and any other sports bet­ting odds, BetLM is one of the most highly regarded resources for online sports betting.

Estab­lished in 1999, BetLM has a an exten­sive track record as one of the Internet’s sig­na­ture des­ti­na­tions for pro­vid­ing sports bet­ting odds as well as a safe, trusted and sim­ple to use online bet­ting website.

Related Posts:

• Habs Like Return, but Gill’s Lead­er­ship Will Be Missed
• Moss Ends His Retire­ment, Sets Sights on NFL Return
• Report: Eagles Won’t Let Jack­son Go With­out Some­thing in Return
• Ex-Colts Exec Polian Says Man­ning Will Return ‘at a High Level’
• Raikko­nen Marks Return With Fastest Test Session

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•