The Toronto Maple Leafs will once again be trying to keep their season alive on Thursday night against the Boston Bruins — and they'll once again have to do it without Auston Matthews.
The superstar is out for Game 6 at Scotiabank Arena, head coach Sheldon Keefe confirmed. The 26-year-old did not participate in the morning skate, but was on the ice for some light work before the team.
The Leafs will need to win at least two games in a row without their best player if they hope to force a deciding Game 7 at TD Garden on Saturday. Matthews left Game 4 early and hasn't played since.
“Not one of those run-of-the-mill, everyday type of illnesses that sort of come and go,” Keefe said after Game 4. “This one has lingered and the effects have lingered and gotten worse when he's getting on the ice and asserting himself. We've just got to manage that and give him the time that he needs. We're hopeful that it'll turn.”
It looks like it hasn't turned yet, with Matthews set to again miss Toronto's most important game of the season. The Leafs have lost both games at home to Boston in the series — and every home game in 2023-24 — and will need to change that without the 69-goal regular-season scorer.
Matthew Knies was the Game 5 hero — and the Leafs need another
The Leafs were just able to slip by the Bruins in Game 5 at TD Garden on a Matthew Knies overtime winner. It was Jeremy Swayman's first loss to Toronto this year, and the team has to have gotten some confidence from sending the goaltender his first L.
But it's another daunting prospect to play without the team's leader; Matthews has a goal and three points over four games. A silver lining is having No. 2 scorer William Nylander back, who missed the first three games and is still looking for his first point of the series.
Game 4 could have went either way, with a first period 1-1 tie making it all the way to overtime before Knies was the hero early into the extra frame. Without Matthews, the Leafs will need another hero if they hope to force a decider back in Massachusetts. And Keefe has confidence that his team will step up in the superstar's absence.
“I think it’s more just the confidence our team has and how it's responded when players have been out, even in this series alone,” the head coach said on Thursday, per NHL.com's Dave McCarthy.
“We had no William in Game 1 and still no William in Game 2, but you have to find a way to win a game on the road and obviously we don’t get that win, we’re not here talking the way things have gone. We have confidence there, we can trust in the group and if anything, it just shows the strength of the group and the importance of the group not looking to others to do the job, but just doing your part and then trusting the group will find a way to prevail in the end.”
The Leafs will look to prevail against the Bruins for the first time on home ice this year to keep their season alive.
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