Matthews absent from practice after taking a lot of punishment from Wilson, Caps

Some heads were turned when Kyle Clifford skated on the top line between Marner and Bunting as Auston Matthews was no where to be found during today's skate. It is unknown if it is just a maintenance day for Matthews or if something is nagging him after last night.

Matthews took more punishment than normal in the corners and off the rush all game with cross checks and slashes galore. Tom Wilson was locked onto Matthews for much of the night and delivered a few stiff checks on the NHL's scoring leader.

Matthews was held in check, failing to register a point and, for the first time in 151 games, not registering a shot. It was just the 5th time in his NHL career that he has failed to register a shot.

Hopefully it is just a maintenance day, which is something he was getting earlier in the season but hasn't had since the calendar flipped to 2022.

In addition to Matthews' absence, after being a very late pre-game scratch last night, Ondrej Kase was also absent from practice and Keefe stated that it is "nothing serious" and will be "day to day".

Kase has battled injuries his entire career and has missed chunks of time with injury this season as well. Given his tenacious style of play and disregard for his body sometimes, management can only hope that it is in fact a day to day issue.

Perhaps, seeing his style of play is why they are trying to tame Robertson a bit, given that he plays with the same tenacity and disregard for his body at times.