Matthews, Domi absent as Maple Leafs prepare for Oilers clash

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Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews won’t be back in the Toronto lineup on Saturday.

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Matthews didn’t practise on Friday at the Ford Performance Centre as he continues to recover from an upper-body injury.

When the Leafs play host to Conner McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers at Scotiabank Arena, Matthews will miss a sixth consecutive game.

“No setbacks,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “We’re doing what we can. We have two games in a long stretch of time (the next eight days), so we’re just letting him recover.

“We want to get him 100%. We want to get it behind us so he can move forward and we can move forward. But (the lack of games in the coming days) does help.”

Matthews originally was listed as day to day, but he has been on the ice for the past several days. Is Berube surprised that Matthews’ absence has stretched this long?

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“Everybody’s different,” Berube said. “All injuries are different. I don’t have an answer for you with that. Would I like him back? Yeah, for sure. We just have to keep moving on without him right now.”

Giving Matthews the time to get healthy is a prudent move on the part of the Leafs. Their schedule is light — they have just five games in the rest of November and don’t play on the road again until Nov. 27 — and there’s no reason to rush Matthews back into the lineup.

Toronto has compiled a record of 4-1-0 without Matthews in its past five games, improving to 39-20-2 in games that Matthews has missed in his National Hockey League career.

Centre Max Domi also did not practise on Friday as he was given a maintenance day. It’s the second time this week that Domi was not on the ice for that reason. He was absent on Monday as well, but has not missed a game.

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“He’s obviously fighting through something too, but he’ll be good to go (against the Oilers),” Berube said. “It’s just maintenance more for him right now.”

Domi hasn’t produced much in 18 games this season, recording just six assists. He has no points in his past 12 games, the longest drought of his NHL career.

“They’re going to struggle mentally a little bit with it,” Berube said, referring to offence-first players going through dry spells. “He had some opportunities last game and it didn’t go in.

“He’ll be fine. He feels it and I feel it for him. We talked to him about it, and he has to just fight through it.”

After Saturday, the Leafs’ next game is next Wednesday when the Vegas Golden Knights make their only visit of the 2024-25 regular season.

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This was how the Leafs lined up at practice on Friday:

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FORWARDS

LW-C-RW

Bobby McMann-John Tavares-Mitch Marner

Matthew Knies-William Nylander-Nick Robertson

Alex Steeves-David Kampf-Pontus Holmberg

Connor Dewar-Steven Lorentz-Ryan Reaves

DEFENCE

Morgan Rielly-Jani Hakanpaa

Jake McCabe-Chris Tanev

Oliver Ekman-Larsson—Conor Timmins

Simon Benoit-Philippe Myers

GOAL

Anthony Stolarz

Joseph Woll

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