{"id":385279,"date":"2026-01-01T18:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T18:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/385279\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T18:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T18:57:17","slug":"auston-matthews-will-return-for-maple-leafs-against-winnipeg-jets-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/385279\/","title":{"rendered":"Auston Matthews will return for Maple Leafs against Winnipeg Jets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Craig Berube\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0wait to put his captain back on the bridge\u00a0Thursday night\u00a0against\u00a0Winnipeg.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/torontosun.com\/tag\/auston-matthews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Auston Matthews;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Auston Matthews<\/a> was finally rounding into form just before\u00a0having to\u00a0skip Tuesday\u2019s game against New Jersey after a lower body shot block in Detroit. In\u00a0his two\u00a0gmes\u00a0prior,\u00a0he\u2019d\u00a0totaled\u00a0four points, a good sign for his coach who has stayed patient with Mathews\u2019\u00a0first\u00a0half,\u00a0slowed by injuries and sub-par\u00a0hockey. Matthews had 23 points in 31 games before Christmas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI really like the way he\u2019s playing lately, driving the play,\u201d Berube said after the morning skate. \u201cHe\u2019s\u00a0getting a lot of opportunities and playing with\u00a0pace and determination.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cA week\u00a0ago\u00a0I started noticing he\u2019s\u00a0taking pucks in\u00a0the middle of the ice more and attacking, taking people 1-on-1 more, winning those battles and his attack mentality around the net.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">That was disrupted when\u00a0he\u00a0stopped a rocket in Motown and wasn\u2019t as\u00a0mobile\u00a0the rest of the evening. Yet he nearly won the\u00a0back-to-back\u00a0match\u00a0in\u00a0overtime\u00a0for the weekend\u00a0points\u00a0sweep.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt was worrisome at the time, because you never know\u00a0(the\u00a0severity),\u201d\u2019Matthews said. \u201cIt caught me in a difficult (unpadded)\u00a0spot\u00a0and it was\u00a0pretty swollen\u00a0for a few days.\u00a0I just did what I could to get my foot in my skate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cBut we\u2019re playing almost every day\u00a0(in January), so it\u2019s one of those things I just have to manage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The projection is Matthews\u00a0centres\u00a0Matthew Knies and Max Domi\u00a0on Thursday\u00a0after Berube tried Bobby McMann on his left wing\u00a0among other experiments. The ongoing absence of winger William Nylander\u00a0(three games and counting with a lower body mishap of his own) continues to mess with Berube\u2019s lines.\u00a0Call-up Jacob Quillan sits for Matthews.<\/p>\n<p>Leafs still short-handed<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The\u00a0Leafs\u00a0are also without\u00a0forward\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theprovince.com\/tag\/dakota-joshua\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Dakota Joshua;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Dakota Joshua<\/a> (kidney)\u00a0defenceman\u00a0Chris Tanev\u00a0(groin) for the next few weeks, though on Thursday they persevered without star\u00a0offensive\u00a0power for a 4-0 win. With the standings in\u00a0the East still incredibly tight, four points out of\u00a0the final wildcard spot,\u00a0Toronto will try and hand the Jets their eighth straight loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It\u2019s\u00a0a new month, a new year,\u00a0with\u00a0the\u00a0NHL\u00a0schedule about to reach the\u00a0midway\u00a0mark.\u00a0In the big picture,\u00a0Toronto\u00a0(18-15-6)\u00a0remains\u00a0less than\u00a010 points\u00a0out of first in their division\u00a0but with almost the whole \u00a0field to pass.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThe\u00a0energy in\u00a0here has been great,\u201d Matthews insisted. \u201cEspecially after the (Christmas) break when you get a few days off to re-charge. There is opportunity\u00a0(to move up in the East) but you have to make the\u00a0most\u00a0of it, collect points, especially in your division.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Matthews is also resuming pursuit of Mats Sundin\u2019s franchise goal record. He was four shy of that 420 mark when he missed the Jersey game, but he and Berube are wary of taking the Jets\u2019 top line of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Gabe Vilardi too lightly during their team slump. A rested Eric Comrie likely gets the start ahead of an over-taxed\u00a0 Connor Hellebuyck.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Joseph Woll starts in net for the Leafs as Berube moves\u00a0away from a rotation with Dennis\u00a0Hildeby, based on Woll\u2019s shutout of the Devils and\u00a0his .923 save percentage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Lhornby@postmedia.com<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">X\u201d\u00a0@sunhornby<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Craig Berube\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0wait to put his captain back on the bridge\u00a0Thursday night\u00a0against\u00a0Winnipeg. Auston Matthews was finally rounding into form&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[532,3819,29,3651,1171,825,8080,3081,599,1825,5,3082,3821,1290,20,5172,3522,797,890,576,4,66,31,5171,1114,77],"class_list":["post-385279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-auston-matthews","tag-bobby-mcmann","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-chris-tanev","tag-connor-hellebuyck","tag-craig-berube","tag-dakota-joshua","tag-dennis-hildeby","tag-detroit","tag-eric-comrie","tag-hockey","tag-jacob-quillan","tag-joseph-woll","tag-kyle-connor","tag-maple-leafs","tag-mapleleafs","tag-mark-scheifele","tag-matthew-knies","tag-max-domi","tag-new-jersey","tag-nhl","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-torontomapleleafs","tag-william-nylander","tag-winnipeg"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115821375992508523","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}