Toronto Maple Leafs announce terrible injury news for captain Auston Matthews
The Toronto Maple Leafs announced today that captain Auston Matthews has suffered an upper-body injury and will miss at minimum tonight's game.
Via reporter Chris Johnston, the Toronto Maple Leafs have announced terrible injury news: newly-minted captain Auston Matthews will miss tonight's game and possibly more after due to an upper body injury.
Auston Matthews is off to a somewhat slow start this season, with 11 points through 13 games. However, he has six points through his last five, coming back from an extremely slow first eight games. The Toronto Maple Leafs currently sit with a 6, 5, and 1 record, but analytics suggest they should be doing much better.
Head coach Craig Berube will likely announce his lines sometime this morning, and we will see how the Toronto Maple Leafs are set to look without their captain. Craig Berube recently lauded Matthews for his grit in defending teammate Mitch Marner during last night's game.
Matthews ultimately got the only penalty on the play, leading to a power play for the St. Louis Blues in a game the Maple Leafs lost, but he showed that he is embracing the role of captain.
With John Tavares slowing down, the Maple Leafs will likely look to Max Domi to be their placeholder first-line centre - not ideal, but the team's defense is performing well, so if they can score a few they should be fine.
Auston Matthews will not only miss these games as the team's superstar, but now as their leader - we will see the effect it has.
