Leafs' Jonathan Bernier still day-to-day with groin strain

A low-grade groin strain doesn't sound like much, like maybe a day or two on the couch armed with a universal remote and a wide variety of technology to keep yourself entertained, at least three different brands of breakfast cereal and a fully stocked mini-fridge featuring a variety of snackage and a gallon of milk...

...but for anyone who's ever experienced a groin strain, they know that it's anything but a weekend in a bachelor pad, and if you happen to be a goaltender for a professional hockey team - well - let's just say that it takes more than just a couple of days on the coach before you can snap down into a butterfly without the unique pain compelling you to throw up.

Toronto Maples Leafs' goaltender Jonathan Bernier is experiencing this joyful ailment and has been since suffering the injury in the first period of a 3-2 win over the Kings in Los Angeles 10 days ago - and although he has been skating the past three days, the team left him behind when they traveled to New Jersey for Sunday night's faceoff against the Devils.

Reimer (r) has lost four straight since Bernier (l) has been on the shelf

"He's been skating but he still has some issues as far as he's not 100%, so until he's 100% he's not available to us," coach Randy Carlyle said on Saturday.

In his stead, the hard-luck James Reimer has been stationed between the pipes, allowing three goals or more in all four games since taking over for Bernier which, predictably, have been all losses - the Leafs falling to the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race with four teams withing two points of overtaking them.

By the same token, if the Leafs pull out of their funk, they are but two points shy of the New York Rangers for the sixth seed, and three behind Philadelphia for the fifth - so obviously it is not time to panic, but the first step in trying to ensure a post-season berth is to find a way to start winning games again, with or without their number one netminder.