Stajan eyeing down time

WASHINGTON-Matt Stajan's status for tonight, like his vision, is a little fuzzy.

In a freak accident, the Maple Leafs centre was hit in the eye with a soccer ball before yesterday's practice here as he and his teammates played a common limbering-up game. Stajan's vision was blurred, according to coach Ron Wilson, so the team had him forgo practice and, instead, sent him for further examination, the results of which weren't immediately available.

"I don't know what the prognosis is," said Wilson.

Before games and practices, it's typical to see a few of the players in shorts, T-shirts and running shoes under the stands in a circle, kicking a ball, trying to keep it from touching the ground. While the players have a few laughs, these being top-level athletes, it can get fairly competitive as players lunge and stretch to keep the ball in play.

Stajan's injury is not thought to be overly serious but if he has to sit out against the Capitals here tonight, his likely replacement in the Toronto lineup will be veteran Jamal Mayers.

Mayers has been out since breaking his right hand on Dec. 1 when he slid into a goalpost during a game in Los Angeles. He had an X-ray taken on Tuesday that showed the bone had healed and he is hoping to receive final medical clearance today. If he gets it, he'll be back whether Stajan can play or not.

"Obviously, they were happy with the direction it's heading in. Now I think it's just based on how it feels and my pain tolerance," said the 34-year-old Mayers. "Hopefully I'll be in there."

The news was not so good for defenceman Mike Van Ryn, who is dealing with his second concussion of the season, this one suffered when the Leafs played at Boston on Dec. 18. Van Ryn was on this trip with the team but went home yesterday morning.

"He's going to be out a while," said Wilson. "He doesn't feel well. We just have to be patient till he feels well."

If Stajan misses any time, it will be a significant loss for Toronto. The 25-year-old impressed this season by working his way back from being a healthy scratch early in the campaign to being nearly a point-a-game player as the Leafs' No. 1 centre.

Playing with wingers Nik Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky, Stajan has six points in the last four games. Antropov went through a recent stretch where he had nine points in four games and the trio found some chemistry.

Nikolai Kulemin, the highly touted Russian who has yet to find his scoring touch in the NHL, worked out on the top line yesterday.

"Hopefully (Stajan) is okay," said Antropov. "But that's sport today; somebody can get injured and we've got people to replace him. Obviously someone is going to be new on our line so we just have to get used to each other and play as simple as we can."

The banged-up Capitals may be without several stalwarts, including Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Semin and Mike Green, for tonight's game against the Leafs. But Toronto will still have to contend with whiz kid Alexander Ovechkin, who scored another dazzler on Friday, his 23rd goal of the season.

With that in mind, Wilson did a lot of work with his defencemen during practice yesterday, putting them in positions where they were facing one-on-one counterattacks and getting them to concede less room.