TORONTO - In a perfect world, Nikita Zaitsev would return to the Maple Leafs lineup on Monday night and play as though he had never missed a shift.
As much as Mike Babcock would love for that to happen at the Air Canada Centre in Game 3 of the first-round series against the Washington Capitals, the Leafs coach wasn’t wringing his hands in worry at the thought of another game without Zaitsev.
The 25-year-old rookie skated on his own on Sunday afternoon at the ACC as the rest of the Leafs stayed off the ice, and if observers didn’t know any better, they wouldn’t realize Zaitsev has been out the past two games because of an upper-body injury, one that he suffered in the regular-season finale against Columbus.