Friedman's update on Matthews is a mix of good and bad news.

Mixed bag in most recent Matthews update.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Friedman's update on Matthews is a mix of good and bad news.
Daniel Lea-CSM-Zuma

The Toronto Maple Leafs faced off against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night and although the Leafs managed to rally and pull off an impressive comeback win, the overall feelings around Leafs and the Maple Leafs' fan base was overwhelmingly negative coming out of the game. That's because during the contests second period Toronto Maple Leafs' superstar forward Auston Matthews suffered what appears to be a rather serious injury.

In the opening minutes of the second period, with both teams playing some 4 on 4 hockey with men in the penalty box on both sides, Matthews managed to strip the puck away from Winnipeg Jets' veteran Adam Lowry and quickly attempted to muscle his way towards the Jets' net in an effort to tie up the game for his team. Unfortunately for Matthews his moves were perfectly tracked by talented Jets' defenseman Jacob Trouba and as a result Trouba lined him up perfectly for a heavy shoulder to shoulder body check. 

It was immediately evident that Matthews took by far the worst end of that body check as the young Leafs' center appeared to be in serious pain after the hit. Matthews quickly made his way around the back of the Jets net and back towards the Leafs' bench, although he did so slowly as the entire time he was skating he was doubled over in pain, seemingly favoring the left shoulder that had absorbed the impact from Trouba's hit. Matthews immediately made his way back into the Maple Leafs' locker room and when the Leafs' announced that he would not be returning to the game fans began to fear the worse. 

Although the Leafs have not provided an official update on his status as of yet, although head coach Mike Babcock did indicate that he would not be available in the near future, we now have a report from a prominent National Hockey League insider that has shed some more light on the Matthews situation. Unfortunately for Leafs fans while there is a silver lining here it sounds like the news, when officially confirmed by the Leafs, is going to be quite bad when Matthews is evaluated on Monday.

According to Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman "it's going to be a while" before Leaf fans see their beloved Auston Matthews on the ice again, and although this is purely speculation on my part I think we are talking something similar to the injury that he suffered last season, an injury that cost him 20 regular season games. The good news however is that this injury is not to the same shoulder that Matthews injured in the past, so the fears that this is going to be a reoccurring injury for Matthews are unfounded at this time. 

Stay tuned for more details.

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