The Toronto Maple Leafs are struggling. They have lost five straight games and seven of their last eight games. During this streak, the Maple Leafs have managed the playing time of blueliner Chris Tanev. Tanev has expressed displeasure with the load management.

Now, the full story around the load management strategy is coming to light, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.

“There’s no question that the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Chris Tanev would rather have played Thursday against the Minnesota Wild than be in street clothes as part of the team’s load management with the veteran defenseman,” LeBrun wrote. “Some background on that: The organization approached Tanev while he was injured about a load management plan for the month of November to help balance his return from injury. All parties agreed he wouldn’t play back-to-back games in November, as well as one particular game that wasn’t a back-to-back: Thursday night against Minnesota. So none of this would have caught Tanev off guard. Except that once top-four defenseman Morgan Rielly got injured, Tanev felt that he shouldn’t be missing games, which is a natural emotion for a fierce competitor such as Tanev.”

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Tanev has played in just ten games this year and has only one point. He already missed time this year due to an injury, and last year, he played in just 11 games. He has not played a full 82 games since 2021-22 and has missed time due to injury in each season since.

Tanev is expected to be back on the ice on Saturday when the Maple Leafs host the Edmonton Oilers. Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs do not play back-to-back games again until November 27 and November 28.