Maple Leafs' Tavares on injured reserve with lower-body issue

John Tavares was taking part in a drill towards the end of practice Wednesday.

The Toronto Maple Leafs centre got his feet tangled with defenceman Chris Tanev and fell awkwardly to the ice.

Tavares stayed down before skating off the ice hunched over in pain. It didn't look good. The Leafs revealed the initial diagnosis some 24 hours later.

The 34-year-old has been placed on injured reserve with a lower-body issue that will keep him out for at least a week.

"It's unfortunate," Toronto head coach Craig Berube said Thursday morning. "It's just bad luck, but it is what it is. We've got to move on from it right now."

Tavares has 20 goals and 42 points across 44 games this season after handing the captaincy to teammate Auston Matthews over the summer.

"He's consistently been himself the whole time I've been here," said Toronto defenceman Jake McCabe, who was set to return to the lineup Thursday against the New Jersey Devils following a four-game absence with an upper-body injury of his own. "Nothing's changed this year, just more of the same."

Berube said Tavares has brought "everything" so far in 2024-25.

"You see his production and what he's done and his leadership," said the coach. "He's been an all-situational guy pretty much done a real good job for us."

The Leafs recalled forward Fraser Minten from the American Hockey League in a corresponding move Thursday. The 20-year-old has two goals and four points in 15 career NHL games.

Toronto (27-16-2) is no stranger to key injuries up front in 2024-25 after Matthews sat out a combined 15 games earlier in the schedule with an upper-body injury.

Tavares picked up a lot of that slack.

"He's been huge," Leafs winger Bobby McMann said. "He's been bringing it every single game this season, whether he ends up on the scoresheet or not. Just a good leader every single night.

"Definitely a big hole that's gonna be tough to fill."

Tavares is in the final year of a seven-year, $77-million US contract he signed with Toronto in free agency in the summer of 2018.

"He's an important piece of our team," McCabe said. "An important piece of our dressing room. He's definitely gonna be missed."

2-time all-star Jarry has 3.32 GAA

The Pittsburgh Penguins ran out of patience waiting for two-time all-star goaltender Tristan Jarry to emerge from a slump, placing him on waivers Wednesday ahead of a pivotal seven-game road trip that could determine the course of the rest of their season.

Jarry, 29, is 8-7-4 with a 3.32 goals-against average and .886 save percentage this season for Pittsburgh, which heads into a seven-game road trip later this week on the fringe of the playoff race in the underwhelming Eastern Conference.

The decision comes 18 months after the club signed Jarry to a five-year deal with an average annual value of $5.375 million US. Jarry was an all-star in 2020 and 2022 but has struggled most of the last two seasons.

The Penguins have allowed an NHL-high 173 goals, with neither Jarry nor Alex Nedeljkovic establishing themselves behind a defence prone to lapses.

The Penguins will call up promising rookie Joel Blomqvist to join Nedeljkovic on the road trip, which starts Friday in Buffalo. Blomqvist went 3-5 with a 3.60 GAA and .904 save percentage during a stint in Pittsburgh earlier in the season.

Jarry ceded the starting job to Nedeljkovic last spring. While he reclaimed his spot atop the depth chart entering this season, he stumbled out of the gate and was sent to the American Hockey League for a lengthy conditioning stint.

It seems unlikely a team would be willing to claim Jarry and pick up his salary, meaning Jarry will be reassigned to the Penguins' American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Penn., once he clears waivers.

"At this point, [I] just feel it's best in the long run for the team and for Tristan to allow Joel to come up here," Pittsburgh general manager Kyle Dubas said Wednesday. "We think over the past year-and-a-half, with his play in Wilkes-Barre and when he's been up here with us, he's earned the right to have a go at it."

Jarry has been particularly poor early in games. He's allowed a goal on an opponent's first shot six times this season and allowed a shorthanded goal on Seattle's second shot in a 4-2 loss to the Kraken on Tuesday.

Bill to reward U.S. Olympic team introduced last fall

A bill to award Congressional Gold Medals to the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" Olympic hockey team was reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.

The ongoing effort, which included the bill being first introduced in October, needed to be submitted for consideration again in the 119th Congress.

Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., reintroduced the Miracle on Ice Congressional Gold Medal Act in the House along with co-sponsors Reps. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., Mike Quigley, D-Ill., and Bill Keating, D-Mass. Sens. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reintroduced it in the Senate.

USA Hockey executive director Pat Kelleher said he encourages fans to contact their congressional representatives to express their support for the bill's passage. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the league enthusiastically supports the legislation.

February marks the 45th anniversary of the Americans beating the heavily favoured Soviet Union on the way to the gold medal on home ice in Lake Placid, N.Y.