Mark Giordano of the Toronto Maple Leafs is nearing his recovery from a broken finger injury.
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Mark Giordano is close to a return to the lineup after recovering from his broken finger, according to Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe.
Giordano, 40, suffered his injury on November 28th against the Florida Panthers, and has spent the last month recovering from it. They’ve gone 6-2-3 during his absence, while also dealing with injuries on the blueline to Timothy Liljegren and Connor Timmins, as well as John Klingberg who will be out for the remainder of the season.
Giordano has had a bit of a slow start to his season offensively, with just a goal and four assists for five points in 20 games. That pace would give him just 20 points in a full 82-game season, which would be the fewest points he’s had in a non-shortened season since the 2008-09 season when he had 19 in 58 games.
However, Giordano’s still been effective defensively, especially on the penalty kill. Since the start of the 2020-21 season, he leads all defensemen in shorthanded defensive goals above replacement with 7.6.
Giordano was an undrafted free agent signing by the Calgary Flames in 2005 after he had spent a season with their AHL affiliate. Outside of a brief stint in the KHL in 2007-08 season, he spent the next 16 years with the Flames, including eight as the captain of the team, and won a Norris Trophy in 2018-19 before he was selected by the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft in 2021. After spending part of that season there as the team’s first captain in franchise history, he was traded to the Maple Leafs at the trade deadline in 2022, where he’s since spent parts of three seasons with.
Giordano is currently in the final year of his two-year contract with an $800,000 cap hit, and will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2023-24 season.
The Leafs will look to make it two wins in a row on Wednesday night as they host the Ottawa Senators at 7 p.m. EST. They currently sit in second in the Atlantic Division with a 17-8-6 record, and are only four points behind the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the division with a game in hand.
germany entered Wednesday’s contest having lost all 25 previous meetings with Finland.
Today, they’re now 1-25 after beating Finland 4-3 in the wildest game of the 2024 World Junior Championship so far.
The Finns are now 0-2 this year, putting them in a difficult position heading into their game against Latvia on Friday. Suddenly, that game could be important in seeing who’ll have to play in the relegation round. And while the win doesn’t guarantee anything for the Germans, who many expected to finish last in Group A, it does give them some extra breathing room, with the expectation that they might just need one more point to stay alive.
The game was a true back-and-forth affair, with Veit Oswald scoring at 5:58. Three minutes later, Tommi Mannisto scored on a breakaway to make it 1-0, giving the Finns some life after getting outshot 13-6 in the first. The second period started as wild as it gets. Kasper Halttunen scored at 21:27 to give That means Nico Pertuch would take his spot, with Philipp Dietl taking over as the starter.That means Nico Pertuch would take his spot, with Philipp Dietl taking over as the starter.
The Germans then fought back, with Roman Kechter scoring to make it 3-3 at 33:07. A minute and a half later, Oswald’s second proved to be the game-winner, with the Germans doing enough to hang on for the 4-3 victory.
In more unfortunate news, Germany’s projected No. 1 goaltender, Simon Wolf, returned back to Germany due to health reasons. That means Nico Pertuch would take his spot, with Philipp Dietl taking over as the starter.
