Leafs practice notes: Ekman-Larsson returns to practice, Carlo remains absent

The Toronto Maple Leafs seem to have escaped yet another damaging injury after defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson was seen skating with the main group at practice on Monday.

Ekman-Larsson left Saturday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in what was an otherwise excellent night for the Leafs. The game featured seven different goal-scorers, including Ekman-Larsson himself, and the Leafs took advantage of some poor goaltending to get contributions from all around the lineup.

Ekman-Larsson has seemingly stepped into the fountain of youth this season, already having matched his goal total from last season (4) and gearing towards doing the same thing with his points. He’s got 20 points in 25 games after he only had 29 in 77 games last season, and it’s given the Maple Leafs two different sources of offence from the back end which is something they’ve sorely lacked during the Morgan Rielly era.

Brandon Carlo, meanwhile, was unfortunately on the other end of the news spectrum, having missed practice again due to an injury he sustained on November 13 against the Los Angeles Kings. Head coach Craig Berube was initially holding out hope that Carlo would be good to return to practice on Monday, and indicating that he would be close to returning to game action if he did. He’s evidently not ready as he continues to battle a lower-body injury.

The rest of the Maple Leafs’ lineup saw a nearly identical lineup to the one that defeated the Penguins on Saturday, with the only change being Simon Benoit’s return to the lineup in place of Dakota Mermis. Benoit flew home on Saturday to attend a funeral and just re-joined the team for practice on Monday.