Kadri likely to be sidelined 3-4 weeks

by Nikhil Daljeet on September 28, 2011 in Leafs News - 373 Comments

According to Bob McKenzie, Nazem Kadri‘s MRI results are in and the young Toronto forward will be missing up to a month.  It should be made official tomorrow by the Leafs, but McKenzie’s as good a source as any.  Kadri suffered the injury to his knee in last night’s preseason game against the Senators.  It comes at a time when it looked like he had the inside track on the third line LW spot with Toronto.  Now, that spot is virtually assured to go to Matt Frattin.

It will be great to see Frattin in full time action at the NHL level, and the college grad has certainly earned the chance with solid all-around play, a booming slapshot, and the utilization of his large frame.  But, Leafs fans, this one included, were excited to see the talented Kadri go to work with linemates that he had spent some time developing chemistry with in Bozak and Armstrong.  While nothing is assured with the impending returns of Matthew Lombardi and Mike Brown, these will likely be the top three lines for the Toronto Maple Leafs heading into this season:

Lupul-Connolly-Kessel

MacArthur-Grabovski-Kulemin

Frattin-Bozak-Armstrong

It will be interesting to see where Lombardi fits into the picture, as he is slated to get into one of the two games this weekend, likely the latter that takes place on Saturday.  With his long layoff, one would figure Lombardi will be brought in slowly on the wing in a fourth line role.   But the possibilities of a Lombardi-Bozak-Armstrong line are intriguing to say the least, and we’ll see how it all shakes out over the next week.

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