Liljegren making progress, Lagesson/Samsonov down with the sickness and bubbleless Marner: Leafs Practice Notes

The Toronto Maple Leafs hit the ice on Sunday morning for practice after a disappointing 4-3 overtime defeat to the Boston Bruins. It was a successful week for the Leafs, taking five of a possible six points, and head coach Sheldon Keefe is hopeful some more practice time can help his hockey club clean things up in their own zone.

At Sunday’s practice it wasn’t a story of who or what was there, it was more so focused on what or who wasn’t there. For starters, Marner’s gone bubbleless.

After two games in his bubble, Marner practiced Sunday without the full face protection and back to the usual visor look. The Leafs winger was electric with his new mask, potting a hat-trick earlier this week against the Seattle Kraken. He was held to just one assist against the Bruins in over 22 minutes of ice time.

Marner’s bubble mask wasn’t the only thing absent from Leafs practice as both goaltender Ilya Samsonov and defenseman William Lagesson both did not attend. Martin Jones remains with the club as Samsonov is dealing with an illness which kept him off the bench against the Bruins. Hopefully a couple more days off before next week’s matchup against Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators will give Samsonov enough time to regroup and become an option for the coaching staff.

William Lagesson’s absence came as a bit of a surprise. He played just over 18 minutes against the Bruins and finished the game with four hits, two blocks and posted a +1 rating. It appears he played through a bit of a bug which caught up to him Sunday and like Samsonov, missed practice with an illness.