{"id":470414,"date":"2026-02-25T01:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/470414\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T01:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:12:08","slug":"usas-auston-matthews-facing-heavy-blowback-for-possibly-missing-nhl-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/470414\/","title":{"rendered":"USA\u2019s Auston Matthews Facing Heavy Blowback For Possibly Missing NHL Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

How long is too long to celebrate an Olympic gold medal?<\/p>\n

That’s the question many NHL<\/a> fans, particularly the loudest fanbase in the Toronto Maple Leafs, are asking themselves on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Not only did Maple Leafs’ American captain Auston Matthews defeat Canada in the Winter Olympic Games men’s hockey<\/a> tournament final, but he’s been celebrating every second since Jack Hughes scored the 3-on-3 overtime winner.<\/p>\n

He was seen drinking in the post-game press conference. He was seen partying in the Olympic Village. He was spotted celebrating on the plane home. And last night on Monday, he was in a Miami nightclub dancing the night away with the gold medal around his neck.<\/p>\n

While this would be fine if the Maple Leafs didn’t play until this weekend, the NHL restarts on Monday, with Matthews set to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in a must-win contest if Toronto wants to attempt to make the playoffs this season.<\/p>\n

More news: Jack Hughes Shuts Down Reporter Over Awkward Question Before Olympic Party<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

More news: Jack Hughes Surprises With Who He Thought Of After USA\u2019s Olympic Win<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto fans hoped Matthews would be back on a plane to rejoin the team he leads after the nightclub theatrics, but he instead went with a majority of the American team to the White House to celebrate the gold medal some more.<\/p>\n

Although there were earlier reports on Tuesday that Matthews would miss Wednesday’s game, Craig Berube said that he expects his captain in the lineup for tomorrow’s pivotal showdown in Florida.<\/p>\n

That hasn’t stopped many Maple Leaf fans from being dismayed at their captain, however, as they believe it shouldn’t be a question if he will be suiting up with the team tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Jake Guentzel, also on the winning Team USA, did not go to the White House; instead, he headed to Tampa Bay on Tuesday to rejoin the Lightning to make sure he is ready for Wednesday’s contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How long is too long to celebrate an Olympic gold medal? That’s the question many NHL fans, particularly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[5,6,20,5172,4,2602,66,31,5171],"class_list":{"0":"post-470414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-ice-hockey","10":"tag-maple-leafs","11":"tag-mapleleafs","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-olympics","14":"tag-toronto","15":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","16":"tag-torontomapleleafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116128615036212509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470414","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=470414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}