John Tavares injury update from Luke Fox. Is Gavin McKenna ready to step up?

John Tavares is out week to week with a lower-body injury, and the Maple Leafs just lost a big piece of an offense they can't afford to thin out.

The timing couldn't be worse heading into tonight's home game against the Islanders. Toronto has dropped two straight and sits sixth in the Atlantic at 3-3-2.

The 36-year-old was still pulling real weight. He has seven points this season, and four of them came on the power play.

That power-play spot now needs a new body. So do the even-strength minutes he was eating every night.

Gavin McKenna is the obvious answer. The 18-year-old has found the scoresheet in a big way lately, with all five of his points coming in his last five games.

Jim Hiller has to hand him more ice now. Holding back a teenager who's producing like this, with the lineup thinning out, would be a mistake.

He's also held his own defensively in that stretch, with an even rating over those five games.

The Maple Leafs blue line was already a problem before this

Toronto has allowed 28 goals in eight games, and that was with Tavares in the lineup.

Chris Tanev is on injured reserve. Morgan Rielly has gone minus-5, while Jake McCabe, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Troy Stecher have combined for no points.

The goaltending hasn't bailed anyone out either. Anthony Stolarz sits at .875 and Sergei Bobrovsky at .896.

Losing a reliable veteran forward with that blue line is like losing your umbrella halfway through a storm you were already soaked in.

The scoring load now falls even harder on Auston Matthews and William Nylander. They've combined for 25 points, and they can't carry it alone.

Easton Cowan and Jack Roslovic both sit at six points. Both will have to chip in more.

The Leafs did beat New York 2-1 back on Sept. 30, so tonight's opponent isn't a total mystery.

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The schedule tightens fast after that. Toronto hosts San Jose on Monday and visits Columbus on Tuesday, a back-to-back with a thinner lineup.

How long is week to week? Nobody's saying yet, and every big shift McKenna plays will tell Hiller something about what this lineup looks like when Tavares comes back.