Auston Matthews, the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, made his return to the team on Saturday after missing nine games due to an upper-body injury. Matthews was activated from the injured reserve before the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning and recorded two assists. His last game was on November 3 against Minnesota.
“I felt fine, I think as the game went on I felt a little bit better,” Matthews said. “I still felt a little bit rusty, but I thought our line played pretty solid all around and simple for the most part.”
In his career, Matthews now has 13 goals and six assists in 15 games after missing time. Toronto holds a 9-3-3 record in those games.
“Obviously, it feels good to chip in on some goals there, especially early on,” he said. “I just want to continue to go forward and get better each game.”
Besides his two assists, Matthews won 16 out of 24 faceoffs, had a plus-2 rating, two shots on goal, and two takeaways.
“I thought he was strong on pucks and moved well out there,” said Toronto coach Craig Berube. “He did a lot of good things.”
Before Matthews’ injury, the Maple Leafs had a record of 7-2 without him.
Prior to getting injured, Matthews had five goals and six assists in 13 games. Although he was listed as day-to-day throughout his recovery, it was later revealed that he had traveled to Germany to work with a specialist to help prevent the injury from happening again once he returned.
Matthews has already been selected for the Team USA roster for the Four Nations Faceoff, set for February.
