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It was status quo regarding Auston Matthews on Friday. After another day of rest during a break from their hectic schedule, the injured center spent a significant chunk of time skating on his own Friday morning prior to the rest of the club taking to the ice at the Leafs practice facility in Etobicoke, ON.
Matthews skated with teammates at the MasterCard Centre, but again wore a red non-contact jersey and left after a few minutes.
"He's progressing for sure, what does that mean??? I don't know the answer to that." Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said on Friday. "When he's ready, he'll let us know for sure."
It has been just over two weeks that Matthews has been out since suffering a Grade-2 shoulder separation and with another three days off until playing three games in four nights against Dallas (Wed), at Buffalo (Thu) and Montreal (Sat) next week, it is likely that the Leafs medical staff will be extra careful and patient with 20-year-old, especially with the club holding a double-digit lead for a playoff spot.
The Leafs are continuing to experiment with different line combos in hopes of finding more offense at practice on Friday. That normally is a strong indicator of what will be used in their next game, but that was not the case in the last home game against the Boston Bruins on February 24.
William Nylander practiced between Zach Hyman and Connor Brown prior to the key Atlantic Division matchup, but Mitch Marner replaced Brown just prior to the game and they scored twice, including Marner’s 16th of the season and setting up Ron Hainsey for the game-winner late in the third period.
“We move people around, try to give ourselves the best opportunity.” Babcock said after practice. “I don’t know what the lineup is going to be 100% for tomorrow, we just see what they did today and see what is going to give us the best chance to have success.”
The unit of Hyman, Nylander and Marner were reunited on Friday, while Leo Komarov skated with Patrick Marleau and Nazem Kadri, who will likely be matched up against Sidney Crosby’s line.
Brown took his usual place on the right side with James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak, Josh Leivo replaced Matt Martin on the fourth line with Tomas Plekanec and Kasperi Kapanen and Roman Polak took his turn in the defensive rotation, as the veteran skated with rookie Travis Dermott.
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Regarding the possibility of Leafs Assistant GM Kyle Dubas getting interest from the Carolina Hurricanes in the wake of Ron Francis being removed earlier this week, TSN’s
Darren Dreger believes that it is likely that Canes owner Thomas Dundon would have interest in the 31-year-old with his analytics background and solid resume, but also expects the Leafs would not grant Carolina or any other club permission to speak to him.
Dreger indicates that the contract extension Dubas signed last summer has him highly compensated and depending on the term of the deal, it gives the Leafs protection against the young executive going elsewhere.
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