Comments from fellow Maple Leafs appear to paint a positive picture for Auston Matthews.

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost arguably their most valuable player on Saturday night when star forward Auston Matthews was rocked by a huge hit from Winnipeg Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba. The hit left Matthew in serious pain on the ice and as he left to the locker room following the blow he appeared to be heavily his left shoulder. 

Since the injury the Leafsm primarily through head coach Mike Babcock, have hinted at the fact that their star forward may be out for some time, although they have repeatedly stated that no official update will be provided until Monday. Obviously this has Maple Leafs fans very concerned after a similar injury cost Matthews a whopping 20 games during the 2017 - 2018 National Hockey League regular season and given the rather serious looking nature of this injury I can hardly blame them. 

There does however appear to be some good news for Matthews and the Maple Leafs as on Sunday his teammates were asked to comment on the injury and they seemed to be fairly positive about the whole thing in spite of the seriousness of the situation. Leafs' forward Mitch Marner made it sound like he will be out for some time at least.

"Just an awkward collision, stuff happens, said Mitch Marner as per TSN. We're gonna miss him, it's a hard spot to fill, but it's gonna have to be done."

That being said however it appears that teammate John Tavares had a chance to speak to Matthews on Sunday, the day after he suffered the injury, and based on Tavares comments things seem to be pretty optimistic, at least relatively speaking.

"You're always a little frustrated the next day, it's still kind of a little bit of a whirlwind... He was certainly upbeat and he said that he was feeling better than expected today so seemed pretty positive and hopefully it's not too long."

We will not be getting an official timeline from the Maple Leafs until he has been fully evaluated by medical staff on Monday but the comments from Tavares are the first good sign that things may not be as bad as many fans are currently fearing. Fans will unsurprisingly be rooting for Tavares to be right in his assessment of the situation.