{"id":471137,"date":"2026-02-25T12:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T12:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/471137\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T12:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T12:41:12","slug":"is-auston-matthews-playing-tonight-maple-leafs-captain-return-to-nhl-action-in-doubt-after-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/471137\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Auston Matthews playing tonight? Maple Leafs\u2019 captain return to NHL action in doubt after Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nhl\/toronto-maple-leafs\/news\/auston-matthews-playing-tonight-maple-leafs-captain-return-nhl-doubt-olympics\/1082f74d1956bb5ace81dae8?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Is Auston Matthews playing tonight? Maple Leafs\u2019 captain return to NHL action in doubt after Olympics;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Is Auston Matthews playing tonight? Maple Leafs\u2019 captain return to NHL action in doubt after Olympics<\/a> originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Sporting News;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Preferred Source by clicking here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nhl\/toronto-maple-leafs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Toronto Maple Leafs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> make their return to NHL game action from the Olympic break on Wednesday night in Tampa Bay against the Lightning.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;ve got some uncertainty surrounding captain Auston Matthews, though, after his gold medal with Team USA on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Matthews has traveled with his teammates back from Milan, Italy, to a big celebratory party in Miami on Monday night, then to the State of the Union in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves Matthews&#8217; status in doubt for Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p>The Maple Leafs enter this post-break stretch on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. They want to get hot and make a run.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>If the Leafs don&#8217;t get going in a hurry, they&#8217;ll likely have to be sellers before the March 6 NHL trade deadline.<\/p>\n<p>Whether or not Matthews plays could be a big factor in what comes next for Toronto and many of its players.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nhl\/toronto-maple-leafs\/news\/maple-leafs-very-specific-draft-pick-reason-tank\/8e61aaa6c849dae6710fe2c8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Maple Leafs have a very specific draft pick reason to tank;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Maple Leafs have a very specific draft pick reason to tank<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Is Auston Matthews playing tonight?<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be determined whether Matthews plays on Wednesday night, as of Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Reports have indicated Matthews is rejoining the Maple Leafs in Tampa Bay on Wednesday, so he&#8217;ll be at the game.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s just not clear whether the Leafs will rush him right back out onto the ice.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;ll likely become more clear after morning skate and any potential media availabilities before the game.<\/p>\n<p>The Maple Leafs will likely have to trust Matthews a little bit to let them know how he&#8217;s feeling and if he&#8217;s ready to go.<\/p>\n<p>More NHL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is Auston Matthews playing tonight? Maple Leafs\u2019 captain return to NHL action in doubt after Olympics originally appeared&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[532,5,189,4,548,540,31,6170],"class_list":{"0":"post-471137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-auston-matthews","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-lightning","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-nhl-trade-deadline","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","15":"tag-wednesday-night"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116131324461926696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471137","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=471137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}