The Toronto Maple Leafs will be getting Auston Matthews back for tonight’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Auston Matthews hasn’t played since the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New York Rangers on January 25th.
In total, he missed five games.
They beat Washington and Columbus while he was gone.
They lost to Boston, but played well.
They also lost to Ottawa and Columbus, however, those games get giant asterixis.
Matt Murray was scheduled to start against Ottawa, and was injured during warmup. Samsonov had to go in cold, and the Leafs didn’t have Matthews.
Against Columbus last Saturday, they played well enough to win, but had Joseph Woll in net, and again, had no Auston Matthews.
So, 2-3 without the big guy, but they could have won 4 of those games, and in the most important game, the one against the Bruins, they acquitted themselves well.
Toronto Maple Leafs, Auston Matthews, vs Blackhawks
This game should be a cake-walk.
Based on team rosters today, the most lopsided game we predict for the 22-23 NHL season is Chicago at Toronto on 2023-02-15 (Chicago is on the 2nd night of a back-to-back) - the Leafs have a 84.1% chance of winning
— EvolvingWild (@EvolvingWild) October 3, 2022
As you can see from the tweet, the Hawks played last night (lost 4-0 to Montreal) and the Leafs didn’t.
The Hawks had to travel, the Leafs didn’t.
The Hawks have like maybe three or four players that the Leafs wouldn’t healthy scratch.
Plus Auston Matthews is coming back.
The most interesting thing about tonight’s game is that Justin Holl will be a healthy scratch.
I have been clamoring for this all year, but I didn’t think it would happen. In fact, I assumed the Leafs wouldn’t trade Holl because he’s their biggest defender, he’s right handed, and at times this year has been their most frequently used player.
Given their roster makeup and their clear love for the player, I assumed any improvements the Leafs made on the blue-line would be very difficult because their worst and most obviously upgradable player was their only physical player (not to say Holl is even that physical, because he isn’t. I would actually say Sandin is their most physical defender, but he’s also weak relative to a lot of NHL forwards and can’t seem to clear the crease that well. These observations could all be confirmation bias too. Who knows?).
A scratch for Holl shows the Leafs might make the right decisions for their team after all. That – to be clear – is to trade Justin Holl and use his salary to help pay for Chychrun.
As for tonight’s game, it’s a long season and the game is meaningless. Hopefully the Leafs get up for the game and dust Chicago, but don’t overreact if they don’t. It’s still a long time before game 1 vs Tampa.