TORONTO, April 25 (UPI) -- The Toronto Maple Leafs have confirmed that captain Mats Sundin has a broken left wrist and
will be sidelined indefinitely.
The likelihood is that Sundin will miss the remainder of Toronto's Eastern Conference quarterfinal playoff series against the New York Islanders and likely the rest of the playoffs if the Maple Leafs advance.
Toronto won the first two games of the series, before dropping the last two in New York the past two nights.
Sundin participated in warmups Wednesday but did not play in Game Four because of what Coach Pat Quinn vaguely called "an upper body injury."
The Leafs announced on Thursday that their leading scorer has a fractured bone in his left wrist.
"We have to have other guys step up," Quinn said.
It is unclear when Sundin suffered the injury. Islanders center Michael Peca hacked Sundin on the left wrist in Game One, and Sundin was late returning to the ice for the second period. In Game Three on Tuesday, New York's Steve Webb crunched Sundin into the boards arms first, which may have aggravated the injury.
The loss of Sundin could be devastating to the Leafs, who are also without Mikael Renberg and defenseman Cory Cross. Renberg has missed the last two games with a strained hamstring and Cross has been sidelined for the last three with an abdominal muscle pull.
Quinn has been juggling line combinations, but his balancing act becomes much more difficult since Sundin, who had one goal and two assists in the first three games of the series, takes the bulk of the time at center and nearly all the key faceoffs.
Robert Reichel, who missed Game One and played sparingly in Game Two with a sprained right knee, moved between Gary Roberts and Shayne Corson in Sundin's usual slot. Alyn McCauley, a fourth-liner and penalty killer, even got some power-play time in the second period of Game Four.
The Maple Leafs have recalled center Alexei Ponikarovsky from St. John's of the American Hockey League to replace Sundin.
Game Five is Friday at Toronto.
Sundin had teams highs of 41 goals and 39 assists during the regular season. His goals total was 17 more than the nearest Leafs -- Darcy Tucker and Alexander Mogilny.
