Auston Matthews receives multi-game suspension.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have to find a way to win without Auston Matthews for the next few games.

On Monday morning, the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety announced that Matthews would be suspended for 2 games following an incident that occurred during the Heritage Classic on Sunday evening. Matthews and the Maple Leafs faced off against the Buffalo Sabres at the Heritage Classic, which was held outdoors in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and it was during the game's third period that the incident in question occurred.

Matthews was involved in an altercation in front of the Buffalo Sabres net with Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, with the two former first overall picks in the NHL Draft getting pretty heated and pretty physical with one another. What started as some pushing and shoving rapidly escalated as the blows from both players progressively got more and more physical, but there's little question that it was Matthews who eventually went a step too far.

The Leafs star forward delivered a violent looking cross check to the head and neck of the Sabres defenseman, one that had enough force behind it to cause Dahlin's head to rock back from the blow. The reaction on social media following the incident was immediate with fans in Buffalo calling for Matthews to be suspended, and given the high profile nature of the event in which it happened it came as no surprise when Player Safety announced on Sunday that they would be taking the incident under review.

Matthews has no history of supplemental discipline in the NHL and is by no means considered a dirty player, so that likely played quite heavily in his favor when the league made its determination regarding the length of this suspension. That being said the optics of the cross check were bad enough that it should come as little surprise that he received the punishment that he did.

For a full breakdown of how the NHL's Department of Player Safety reached their determination for Matthews' suspension, you can check out their full explanation in the video they have provided below.