Auston Matthews is unlikely to play for the Maple Leafs in Game 7 against the Boston Bruins due to an undisclosed injury that has kept him out of the last two games.
While coach Sheldon Keefe said Matthews is “progressing,” he suggested the Leafs would play a third straight potential playoff game without their best player.
“Right now, we’re proceeding the way we have been doing it,” Keefe said.
Matthews participated in Toronto’s morning skate, but was on the ice for only 15 minutes and still appeared to be physically limited. The team did not show any potential line combinations with their drills.
The Leafs have already shown in this series that they can win without Matthews. They beat the Bruins in Games 5 and 6, facing elimination, without him. It took tremendous effort from Joseph Woll in goal, tough defending, timely goals and discipline; the Leafs took just one penalty each in the two wins that pulled them out of a 3-1 series hole. They won both matches by 2-1.
“They fought,” Keefe said after Toronto’s Game 6 win. “They didn’t go to bed. They did not accept their fate. They changed it.
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The Leafs are 3-0 without Matthews this season.
Given the highly secretive nature of how teams operate during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it’s difficult to get specific details about what ails Matthews.
What is known is that the 26-year-old played through illness in Games 3 and 4 before suffering the injury on a harmless hit while playing sick, according to league sources. Team doctors removed Matthews from the lineup during the second intermission of Game 4, and he was unable to participate in a full team practice again until Saturday morning.
Game 7 will be played at TD Garden in Boston at 8 p.m. ET.
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(Photo: Brian Fluharty / USA Today)