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Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews says he plans to play on Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning after missing nine straight games with an upper-body injury.
“In my mind, I’m playing tomorrow and I’m excited to be back,” Matthews said after Friday’s practice, per Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star.
Matthews last played on Nov. 3, when he skated more than 22 minutes in an overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild. He was placed on injured reserve five days later.
“I think just like the first 10 minutes, I’ll try to get my feet moving and get some puck touches, keep things simple and just go from there… obviously there’s going to be a little bit of rust,” Matthews said on Friday, per McGran.
Leafs general manager Brad Treliving told reporters on Nov. 19 that Matthews was visiting a doctor in Germany “more as a general checkup, but also to get some work done on this thing.”
Matthews later told reporters that he was working to address an injury that had “flared up” during the preseason, per The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke.
“I thought it was time to take a step back, re-evaluate, and take it day by day,” Matthews said on Nov. 23, per Kloke. “And it hasn’t necessarily gotten worse, but it wasn’t really getting better. So I wanted to be proactive.”
Matthews continued: “I wouldn’t call it a mistake, but I guess the mistake I made in the past is maybe coming back, you want to get back and you start to feel good and then you try to jump back into the game and maybe you’re not quite ready yet. So I think with this, just wanted to be mindful and make sure that I’m feeling back as close to 100 percent before we start getting back into game situations and stuff like that, so it’s not something that prolongs throughout the season.”
Neither the Leafs nor Matthews have clarified if the injury involves the forward’s left wrist, on which he reportedly underwent procedures in 2021 and 2022.
Matthews, who won his third Rocket Richard trophy last season after leading the NHL with 69 goals, was scoring at a relatively slow pace with five goal in 13 contests prior to his absence.
The Leafs have stayed afloat without him, winning seven of nine games over the stretch to hang on to the No. 2 slot in the Atlantic Division. That could change on Sunday should the Lightning (12-8-2) leapfrog the Leafs (13-7-2) with a win.
Toronto will hope the return of a healthier Matthews can help lead the team to victory when the puck drops on Saturday night at 7 p.m. ET.
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