Maple Leafs News: Brian McCabe Back Against Canadiens

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have defenceman Bryan McCabe back patrolling their blueline tonight when they visit Montreal to play the Canadiens.

McCabe, who was averaging 27 minutes per game before his injury, has been chomping at the bit to comeback. 

He has missed the past 22 games with a broken hand sustained, ironically, against Montreal at the Bell Centre.

In that game, McCabe broke the hand in three places when he was checked into the boards by Canadiens' forward Andrei Kostitsyn. 

The Leafs have struggled since McCabe was forced to the sidelines.  They have won only seven games during that span.  

Also, the former second-round pick of the New York Islanders was playing his best hockey of the season, rebounding from a slow and infamous start.

It was McCabe, Leaf fans remember, who put the puck past his own netminder Andrew Raycroft, in overtime, against the Buffalo Sabres back on October 16.  For the next week or so, he became Toronto's favourite whipping boy, enduring many Larry Murphy-like cat calls. 

The Maple Leafs are a fragile hockey team these days and welcome McCabe's reinsertion.

Toronto is coming off, undoubtedly, its worst performance of the season.  They fell 8-0 to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday and were booed mercilessly by fans at the Air Canada Center.

If McCabe does not receive clearance from team doctors to play against the Habs, he will likely make his return on Saturday when the Leafs host the powerful Detroit Red Wings in a matinee game at the ACC. 

The game is part of CBC's Hockey Day in Canada, a celebration of this country's greatest pastime.