The Toronto Maple Leafs need to win one more game without Auston Matthews to extend their season and give their leading scorer a chance to be healthy enough to return.
Whether that will happen in Game 7 if the Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins on Thursday remains to be determined.
The Leafs are working day-by-day on Matthews’ recovery, according to multiple people briefed on the matter. He hasn’t been ruled out beyond Game 6, but he’s clearly in serious trouble as he misses two potential elimination games.
A person briefed on the matter said it was unlikely Matthews would play in Game 7. Another said the team is uncertain at the moment.
The way teams operate during the Stanley Cup Playoffs is so secretive that it’s difficult to obtain specific details about the cause of Matthews’ slump.
What is known is that the 26-year-old played through the illness in Games 3 and 4 of the series, then was injured by an innocuous ball while playing while unwell, according to officials. . Team doctors removed Matthews from the lineup during the second intermission of Game 4, and he has not participated in a full team skate since.
Matthews has been on the ice every day for the past three days, but on Thursday morning he had a 30-minute session with members of the player development staff at Scotiabank Arena, one of the sources said. He said it would be “reckless.” Whatever hinders him, try to overcome it.
In a video taken by The Hockey News during Thursday’s session, Matthews can be seen practicing puck tipping, cradle, passing and taking one-timers. He also skated much more than he did during a short on-ice session at TD Garden before Game 5 on Tuesday morning.
It seemed like we were making progress.
The Leafs extended their season without him in the lineup for a 2-1 overtime win in Boston on Tuesday. Max Domi took Matthews’ spot on the top line between Mitch Marner and Tyler Bertuzzi and made it 12-2 while recording an assist on a faceoff dot.
“Domes stepped up,” said teammate Matthew Kunise, who scored Toronto’s overtime winner. “I think players like that can step up and fill that role. I think we played together as a team and found a way to win.”
Added Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe: (When you don’t have players of that caliber) you know everyone has to be better. ”
Early in the series, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery praised Matthews’ work ethic, calling him the most dangerous man on the ice. That came a day after he scored the game-winning goal and added two assists in Toronto’s Game 2 at TD Garden.
“He’s been the best scorer in the league since we’ve been here,” Montgomery said Thursday morning. “Great player. But in the last game they played great without him.”
During the regular season, the Leafs played just one game without Matthews, a 7-0 win over Pittsburgh on Dec. 16 when he was sick, and in his eight-year NHL career, the Leafs played only one game without Matthews in the playoffs. I’ve never missed a game before.
This has been a difficult series health-wise for Toronto. William Nylander was absent for the first three games due to an undisclosed issue, although we saw him suit up for every regular season game.
Winger Bobby McMann also did not play at all against the Bruins after sustaining a lower-body injury on April 13th.
But the most irreplaceable player in the Leafs’ lineup is arguably Matthews, who is coming off a 69-goal season. Despite Boston not taking anything for granted, the team has scored just nine goals in the five-game series.
“It’s like when Nylander was out,” Bruins defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. “Maybe that changes the dynamic of their team. But they’re all powerful weapons. Auston is by far the most dangerous guy when he’s on the ice. But their game was the same last time. I don’t think it’s changed as much as the game. All in all, they were just desperate.
“If he had been in the lineup, it probably would have been more of the same.”
Unfortunately for the Leafs, they may have to get used to playing without him in order to turn this into an extended playoff run.
(Photo: Klaus Andersen/Getty Images)
