Status update on Auston Matthews ahead of Wednesday's game in Nashville
Yesterday, we saw Auston Matthews miss practice in what was called a ''maintenance day'' by Leafs bench boss Sheldon Keefe. Keefe also stated that Matthews would more likely be a game-time decision tonight against the Predators, labelling him as "questionable".
It would appear as though Matthews will be out of the lineup tonight, after being a participant in the game-day skate this morning. That's not good news for the Leafs as Matthews is currently riding a 4-game point streak with 3 goals and 4 assists over that span and has 20 points in his last 16 games.
He reached the 20-goal mark in game 41 against the Flyers on Sunday - a little slower than previous seasons, but Matthews still has 47 points in 41 games. The loss of Matthews is unfortunate for the Buds, who need to continue to rack up points in the standings if they want to have any hope of catching Boston in the Atlantic Division race. At this point in time, the Bruins remain 11 points up on the Leafs and hold one game in hand.
The big swing games will occur on Saturday, Jan 14th, Wednesday, Feb 1st, Thursday, April 6th. These are the next 3 times that the Leafs play the Bruins. If the Leafs can go 3-0 against the Bruins without giving up any points, that will be a huge 12-point swing, +6 for the Leafs and burning 3 of the Bruins' remaining games, which could end up being enormous by the end of the year.
If the Leafs hope to beat the Preds tonight without Matthews in the lineup, they'll need huge performances from John Tavares, Mitch Marner and William Nylander. Matthews is now considered day-to-day, per Keefe.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 11 | 125 ANSWERS Status update on Auston Matthews ahead of Wednesday's game in Nashville Will Matthews play tomorrow in Detroit? | ||
| Yes | 46 | 36.8 % |
| No | 79 | 63.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
