“He’s no leader on a team still developing internal leadership. He’s not combative or a fierce adversary. He doesn’t bring size to the equation or pluck or two-way excellence.”

Cox thinks the Leafs should look at trading Kessel. He has a $5.4 million cap hit, and will get a $5.1 million salary next year and $5.4 million in the last year of his deal.

“I was more sore today when I skated, so that’s why I was out there for just a few minutes. It was more sore today.” He has a deep bone bruise and there is still some swelling, no fracture.

On shutting things down for a bit:

“We’ve talked about it,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll talk more to the coaching staff and see what the next step will be, but it’s still day-to-day. It’s discouraging that I haven’t started feeling better, as it’s going on two weeks now.”

“Our job is to go out there and play hockey,” said Blue Jackets defenceman James Wisniewski. “We go out there to try and win hockey games. What happened behind the scene is his personal business and we support him as a person and as a player.”

“Everybody’s really happy with what he’s doing,” Jari Kurri said. “Keep going. Why stop now?”

“I’m hoping he keeps playing,” Kurri said. “Why stop? I know he wants to win. He wants to do well and he’s playing well. I don’t see any reason for him to stop.”

“it’s part of the process. Some days are better than others, but he knows his body and we’ll see how he is. Hopefully, we’ll get him back on the ice (Wednesday) and things progress.”

“Jonathan was excited when he was skating,” Quenneville said. “He’s still looking forward to getting back. Hopefully, it’s going to be soon.