The Auston Matthews watch continues as the calendar year 2024 runs out on the Maple Leafs’ injured captain.
There was hope that Matthews’, and the team’s, three days off during the NHL’s Christmas break would see him recover to be in the lineup Friday at Detroit, but coach Craig Berube ruled him out and added the strong likelihood that he misses Saturday’s home game against Washington, too.
The match against the Red Wings was the third straight that Matthews has missed since an upper body injury flared up, approaching 13 total games he’s been sidelined if he doesn’t face the Capitals. Berube told the media in Detroit that Matthews is improving, but likely doesn’t play Saturday, pending a pre-game update.
Mathhews’ next chance would be the New Year’s Eve matinee versus the Islanders, giving him two more days off. But from there, Toronto is playing almost every second day until late January.
Matthews took a couple of hits a week ago in Buffalo, the most painful a cross-check to the lower back, likely the source of pain that had led him to see a specialist in Munich last month. Through 24 games this year, the defending Rocket Richard Trophy winner has 11 goals and 23 points.
OVIE TO FACE LEAFS ON SATURDAY?
A week ago, Matthews was set to play against the Caps, while Alexander Ovechkin was iffy to face the Leafs. Now, Ovie might solo Saturday night in the Toronto spotlight to resume his chase of Wayne Gretzky’s career goal record.
Before fracturing his left fibula Nov. 18 against Utah, the Great Eight was 27 goals shy of The Great One’s 894. At age 39, Ovechkin managed to fast track his recovery and “is trending in the right direction” to be ready for the Leafs, Caps coach, Spencer Carbery, said on Friday.
Ovechkin spent Friday’s practice in his usual first-line left-wing slot with Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas. A few days before his injury, the trio looked very good against Toronto in a 4-3 overtime defeat. Ovechkin, with 44 goals against the Leafs in 60 career games, was held to an assist in that last outing.
Caps defenceman John Carlson can’t wait for Ovechkin to be back in the dressing room where he has always been a force of energy, and on the ice to continue the Gretzky pursuit, while the club is fighting for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
“We talked for days after he got hurt: You can’t replace him, you can’t replace his personality,” Carlson said. “All that stuff, his presence, scoring and on-ice ability … I’ve played with a lot of guys and there’s not one person like him.
“He wanted to stay close around the guys (while out) and it was meaningful, but I think now, the last week or so of practice, he’s getting unlocked and it’s fun to see.”
“It’s incredible the magnitude of what’s going on around us (with the Gretzky race), him rolling in, having fun like a kid going out for recess. It’s fun for me and the young guys who haven’t been in the NHL. Their heads are spinning when he’s in the room. It’s a great achievement that he’s chasing and he has his biggest fans next to him.”
WINGS NEEDED SHAKE-UP
The timing of Detroit general manager Steve Yzerman firing head coach Derek Lalonde on Thursday likely had a bit to do with division rival Toronto being in town, the first of three home games with the Wings trying to stay out of the Atlantic Division cellar.
They’d hoped to be in the wild-card playoff race this year, a predicament Yzerman must take some blame for in with his second coaching change after canning Jeff Blashill a few years ago.
“Clearly we aren’t there, hence the change,” Yzerman said on Friday morning.
This is new coach Todd McLellan’s first stint in the Eastern Conference after seven seasons in San Jose, four in Edmonton and five in Los Angeles. He was on the short list of the Leafs before they hired Berube to replace Sheldon Keefe last spring.
The Melville, Sask., native developed his own successful bench style as an assistant under Mike Babcock with the Wings and Jacques Lemaire with the Minnesota Wild after cutting his teeth as a player as captain of the maverick WHL Saskatoon Blades in the mid-1980s. They had a roster of many future NHL rogues, notably Kelly Chase, Tony Twist, Kevin Kaminski, Shaun Van Allen, Kerry Clark — Wendel’s brother — and Brian Glynn.
“We used to say it wasn’t a junior team, but a young offenders work release program,” laughed Chase in an earlier Sun interview. “Todd (who was in Chase’s wedding party) needed to have the maturity of a 30-year-old to deal with that group of troublemakers, the bar fights and so much more.
“His dad was an RCMP officer (as was Leafs GM Brad Treliving’s father, Jim) and I’ll bet he went home and asked him how he should be dealing with us. But it was a good team and we all made sacrifices.”
LOOSE LEAFS
Defenceman Morgan Rielly knows a lot of what the Wings were going through the past couple of games. In his time as a Leaf, coaches Randy Carlyle and Babcock were fired during the season. “Whenever that happens, as players you think a lot about why your team is in that situation. There’s always some kind of a reaction when something like that happens” … The NHL holiday roster freeze ends at 12:01 a.m., Saturday morning, with trade rumours swirling without the league. The Seattle Kraken, eight points out of a wild-card spot on Friday morning, might dangle 5-foot-9 centre Yanni Gourde, a player the Leafs are familiar with from their playoff battles against Tampa Bay and whose $5.1-million US contract nearing free agency could be more affordable closer to the March 7 trade deadline … The Leafs went into Friday’s game tied with New Jersey for the most second-period goals (47).
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