The Maple Leafs (optional) and Carolina Hurricanes skated at Scotiabank Arena on Friday.

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Auston Matthews underwent surgery in New York on Thursday to repair a torn MCL in his left knee.

“Adversity hits and some tough days ahead of him, but also some great days,” said Leafs teammate and good friend Max Domi. “I mean, he’s about as mentally strong as it gets, so he’ll find a way to come back even better than he was before, which is tough to imagine. He’s already that good, so I’m excited to see that. It’s going to be a good summer for him.”

The Leafs captain sustained the injury on a knee-on-knee hit from Anaheim Ducks defenceman Radko Gudas on March 12.

“I’ve been through surgery and it’s not fun,” said winger Nick Robertson. “It’s pretty weird. You go to sleep and you wake up and you don’t know what’s going on and you’re pretty numbed up and it’s sore. It’s a long journey, but it’s worth it. You don’t want to prolong the injury. It’s one of the things you have to do in your career.”

The Leafs announced that the recovery timeline for Matthews is approximately 12 weeks.

“He’ll have a good approach,” coach Craig Berube said. “He’s a hard worker and he’ll do what he has to do to get it 100 per cent healthy and ready to go again. He’s not afraid to do what’s needed and the work he has to put in.”

The Leafs have 13 games remaining, including Friday’s home date against the Carolina Hurricanes. Toronto is last in the Atlantic Division and destined to miss the playoffs for the first time since Matthews joined the team in the 2016-17 season.

“I think he’s going to be around us for the rest of the year so it will be nice to see his face,” said winger Matthew Knies.

“When he goes down, you know the room’s a little off,” Robertson added. “He’s our captain and I’m sure he’ll find ways to lead us despite not playing.”

‘He’ll find a way to come back better’: Leafs have faith Matthews will respond well to surgery The Maple Leafs shared their reaction to the news of Auston Matthews’ surgery and have offered their support for their captain. The players know injuries are part of the game and have no doubt he will respond well to his recovery and look forward to his return to the team.

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The Leafs did not immediately confront Gudas after the hit, which led Berube to call out the team in the second intermission and later during a post-game media session.

The entire hockey world seemed to take notice of what happened.

“Your captain gets taken out like that, I mean, gotta have a way better response,” Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said on his Wingmen podcast with brother Matthew Tkachuk. “Personally, I know how I’d feel if I got hit like that and nobody really jumped in there, I’d be pretty pissed.”

Rielly said he had no issue with an opposing player weighing in.

“People are allowed to share their opinion,” he said.

Berube believes that Rielly, who is the longest-serving Leaf, took what happened with Matthews personally.

“I think we all did,” Rielly stressed. “We’re all aware of it and that’s all.”

“We’ve had more grit in our game, a little more bite, and it’s helped us,” said Robertson. “We’ve had that no-push-around attitude and we gotta have that more going forward.”

Rielly dropped the gloves with Kyle MacLean on Tuesday night after the Islanders forward bumped into Joseph Woll.

“He’s such a leader for us,” Robertson said. “I remember one time I got hit pretty good in Winnipeg and he stood up for me, so that’s just natural instinct to him.”

The Leafs will face Tkachuk and the Senators on Saturday night.

Rielly has no issue with Sens’ Tkachuk weighing in on how Leafs responded to Matthews injury The Maple Leafs took some criticism for how they handled the injury to Auston Matthews but head coach Craig Berube believes Morgan Rielly took the injury to his captain personally. As for the comments from Brady Tkachuk on the matter on his podcast, the Toronto defenceman was unbothered by it.

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Leafs players are under the microscope in Toronto. It’s a similar situation for players across Canada.

“It’s definitely easier in a place like Raleigh,” said Hurricanes winger Taylor Hall, who started his career with a six-season run in Edmonton. “I just think the NHL is unique in the fact that there’s seven teams in Canada and all seven of those cities love their hockey – and as they should. But it’s a lot different once you cross the border in the U.S.”

Since leaving Edmonton, Hall has played in New Jersey, Arizona, Buffalo, Boston, Chicago and now Raleigh.

“The fans are still the same during the game, there’s sellouts and they go crazy for the hockey, but I think away from the game, on social media, in the media, it’s just a little bit different in Canada,” the 34-year-old said. “A team like the Green Bay Packers in the NFL, that’s what it’s like to play for a Canadian team. There’s been some really good Canadian teams over the years, [but] I do think that there’s times where it gets a little too much and maybe becomes a bit of a distraction.”

Is that why a Canadian team hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993?

“I don’t know,” Hall said before cracking a smile. “I think you’re looking for clickbait a little bit, but it’s been a long time and that’s undeniable. I don’t think it’s the reason. I think there’s a lot of things that go into that, and luck and randomness is definitely a part, but at this point it’s starting to get a bit weird.”

Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour was wary of weighing in considering he’s never played or coached in a Canadian market.

“But I do know the mental side of things sometimes, when it’s 24/7, it’s hard,” Brind’Amour noted. “Where we live hockey’s huge, but you have a life and you can get away from it, and you can take your kids places and you can do things and, you know, you have a life. And then obviously when you come to the rink it’s different. I don’t know, there’s something there, but I can’t really speak to it, because I haven’t been on the other side of it.”

‘A lot different once you cross the border’: Hall says Canadian teams deal with more distraction Taylor Hall spent six seasons playing in a Canadian hockey market in Edmonton and another few seasons playing in Boston so he is used to the media and fan scrutiny that comes with playing in a hockey-loving city. The Hurricanes forward admitted that it’s definitely easier to play in a place like Raleigh and spoke about how social media has changed things for players.

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Knies has been managing a knee injury throughout the season.

“It’s been pretty good,” he said when asked how he’s holding up physically. “I’m going to re-evaluate it once the summer hits and try to have a good plan going into summer training and make sure coming back into next training camp and next season that I’m fully healthy and ready to take on 82 games or 84 games.”

The 23-year-old did not consider shutting things down for the rest of the season even though the Leafs are well out of the playoff picture.

“I don’t think it could get much worse so I don’t think there’s any risk,” he said. “It’s obviously not comfortable playing through it, but everyone’s playing through something I feel like this time of year so it’s not really an excuse. But, yeah, if it’s not going to get worse and there’s no problem with me playing then I’m going to play.”

Knies is tied for the team scoring lead with 11 points since the Olympic break.

“He’s fine,” said Berube. “He came off that Olympic break and I haven’t heard one thing, so he’s healthy.”

As Leafs play out the stretch, Knies plays through pain: ‘If it’s not going to get worse, there’s no problem’ Matthew Knies is not fully healthy but says there is no concern with him doing any further damage if he continues to play the rest of the season. The Leafs forward said he will evaluate more in the summer and addressed the thought of shutting things down.

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William Nylander has produced just one assist in three games since Matthews got hurt.

“I spoke to him today,” Berube revealed. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know if you’re playmaker now or are you going to shoot?’”

Nylander has landed just two shots on net in each of the last three games.

“He needs to shoot the puck and he understands that and that’s on the power play too,” Berube noted. “He understood and he agreed. More direct and shoot pucks. Like, he scores goals and we need him to shoot the puck.”

Leafs Ice Chips: Berube asks Nylander, ‘Are you going to shoot?’ After enjoying an eight-game point streak, William Nylander has been held without a point in his last two games, and while he was not on the ice on Friday morning, he did speak with head coach Craig Berube about the state of his game. TSN’s Mark Masters has more.

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Knies scored a beautiful goal the last time the Leafs faced the Hurricanes on Dec. 3 in Raleigh. Where does it rank on his career highlight list?

“Probably [I’d] say top three for sure,” Knies said with a smile.

Needless to say, Carolina will be keeping close tabs on No. 23 on Friday night.

“He’s big, he’s fast, he’s skilled,” said Hall. “He’s a beast. I’ve seen him play first-hand and it’s pretty impressive.”

The Leafs beat the Hurricanes 5-1 during that December duel. Toronto lost to Carolina 5-4 in Toronto on Nov. 4 in the first meeting between the teams.

The Hurricanes did not have defenceman Jaccob Slavin in either of their two previous games against the Leafs.

“He’s difficult to get around,” Knies said. “Good defensive defenceman, smart player, good stick, long stick, makes it pretty difficult to create offence and generate really anything.”

Slavin is plus-7 on the season despite logging more than 21 minutes a night and facing off against top lines. He blocks 3.96 shots per 60 minutes, which is second on the Hurricanes.

“We play an in-your-face type of game,” Slavin said. “Our goal is to take away time and space and not give teams too much. It’s hard. It’s suffocating for teams. It’s hard to play against.”

After scoring ‘top three’ goal vs. ‘Canes, Leafs ‘beast’ Knies faces big challenge against Slavin In a Maple Leafs’ win in early December against the Hurricanes, Matthew Knies scored one of the nicest goals of his career but this time around, he will be going up against a tough defenceman in Jaccob Slavin. Knies spoke about what makes him so difficult to play against.

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The Hurricanes added winger Nicolas Deslauriers at the deadline, but did not make a big splash despite sitting first place in the Metropolitan Division.

“There was some chatter about us adding or not adding people, but we like the team we have,” said Hall. “We’re comfortable with what we have going forward. When we’re on, there’s not a lot of teams that can beat us. But it’s a question of whether we’re on. Lately we’ve had a little bit of inconsistency with just how we’re playing.”

The Hurricanes are 3-3-0 since the trade deadline with only one regulation win.

“We gotta keep pushing,” Brind’Amour said. “I mean, we know how hard it is. You have one bad week and things look a lot different. We like the group. We’ve liked this group for a long time. We’ve been able to keep the core together for the most part, which is very, very important and special.”

Carolina won four of five games heading into the deadline.

Brind’Amour downplayed the idea that the quiet deadline took some wind out of their sails.

“As an organization, we’re always making moves, but we made a lot of them in the offseason,” the coach said. “We picked up [Nikolaj] Ehlers and we got [K’Andre] Miller, those were pretty huge acquisitions. So, yeah, I mean, we didn’t do anything at the deadline but we had already made our moves and we were already a team that we were pretty happy with.”

The Hurricanes are set to compete in the playoffs for an eighth straight season.

“They have a really good nucleus of players that have led the way,” said Domi, who suited up for the Hurricanes in the 2022 playoffs after being acquired at the deadline.

“Jordan Staal driving the bus obviously. Sebastian Aho is a great leader as well. Everyone’s just bought into the way they play. They play a very simple formula of hockey and rim a lot of pucks, dump a lot of pucks, and tons of energy and everyone buys in, right. They got four lines that come at you in waves and six great defenders.”

‘We’re an unbelievable team’: No big deadline deal? No problem for Hurricanes The Hurricanes were one of the teams that had some attention heading into the trade deadline but management did not make any big splashes and they currently sit eight points clear atop the Metropolitan. The confidence is high in the Carolina room and the team believes they are in a good spot heading into the final stretch of the season.

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Projected Leafs lineup based on Thursday’s practice:

Maccelli – Tavares – Cowan

Knies – Domi – Nylander

Joshua – Groulx – Robertson

Lorentz – Quillan – Jarnkrok

Rielly – Carlo

McCabe – Stecher

Benoit – Ekman-Larsson

Woll starts

Stolarz

Lines at Hurricanes skate:

Svechnikov – Aho – Jarvis

Hall – Stankoven – Blake

Ehlers – Staal – Martinook

Carrier – Jankowski – Robinson

Deslauriers – Kotkaniemi

Slavin – Chatfield

Miller – Walker

Reilly – Nikishin

Bussi starts

Andersen