Auston Matthews' Return to Practice Leads to Some Line Shuffling by the Maple Leafs
Auston Matthews took part in his first full practice with the Leafs since December 20th, forcing head coach Craig Berube to shuffle his forward lines.
According to Berube, Matthews re-aggravated his upper-body injury December 20th after taking a cross-check to the back against the Buffalo Sabres.
Since, the Leafs' captain has missed the past four games, but has been skating the past few days and making good progress according to the Leafs' bench boss.
A timeline for his return to the lineup is still unknown, but Matthews skated for 20 minutes before the rest of his teammates took to the ice for practice before being a full participant himself.
In his return to practice, Matthews took reps with Matthew Knies and William Nylander during line rushes, but cautiously rotated in and out with David Kampf.
With Kampf moving up in the lineup, Pontus Holmberg centered Steven Lorentz and Connor Dewar on the fourth line with Ryan Reaves rotating through at times. The lines of Max Pacioretty, John Tavares, Mitch Marner and Bobby McMann, Max Domi and Nicholas Robertson remained in tact.
While fans were happy to see the Arizona native back at practice, it's worth noting that he departed after just 25 minutes, indicating he may not be ready to return just yet.
Entering the week, the Leafs will play Tuesday afternoon before playing three games in four nights beginning Thursday, followed by a back-to-back Saturday and Sunday. Should Matthews return, the earliest would likely be Thursday after getting another practice in on Wednesday.
Given that he was only at practice for 25 minutes, however, a more reasonable expectation would be a return at one of the games on Saturday or Sunday to give him a few more days to ramp up the intensity and get up to speed.
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