Matthews missed one game after blocking a shot against the Red Wings on Sunday.
Auston Matthews says he's good to go.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will be getting their captain back against the Winnipeg Jets after he missed one game with a lower-body injury. Matthews blocked a shot late in the second period against the Detroit Red Wings last Sunday and immediately went to Toronto's dressing room before returning and finishing out the game.
Matthews said he was worried in the moment that the injury could've been worse than it was.
"Pretty worrisome. You never know what it could be," he stated on Thursday morning after the Maple Leafs' morning skate. "Obviously, it kind of caught me in a difficult spot and was pretty swollen for a few days.
"So I just tried to do what I could to reduce all that stuff and fit my foot in, my speed and kind of get going again. I felt good to skate yesterday. And I feel like every day I've made really good progress. So it's not like we have an abundance of days to kind of let things settle. We're playing every day. So just kind of those things, how to manage and push forward."
After picking up an injury such as that one, maybe Matthews would think about not blocking as many shots. He leads all Toronto forwards with 52 blocked shots through 33 games this season, only behind Morgan Rielly (54) and Jake McCabe (102)
Though he didn't necessarily disagree with not blocking as many shots, Matthews said that part of his game comes down to instincts.
"I think most of the shots I'm blocking are just kind of the sifters. They're not like super hard shots coming from the point that you just kind of get in the way of, because you're playing center and you're playing in the middle of the ice," said Matthews.
"But sometimes you have to lay your body on the line, and I think that's just part of the game."
Matthews' play appears to have risen to another level over the last week, scoring four points in his previous two games. Another tell-tale sign of that was against the Red Wings, when the Maple Leafs captain rang an absolute rocket of a shot off the cross-bar.
We hadn't seen a shot like that in quite some time.
Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube lauded Matthews' pace of play and determination to create scoring chances as of late. Berube added that he noticed an uptick in that area around a week ago.
"I just started noting, like, just taking pucks in the middle of the ice more and attacking, taking people one-on-one and winning all those battles and things like that," said Berube. "Just his attack mentality around the net. Looks like he's ripping the puck a little bit quick, like, you know, just more oompf on the shot."
When Matthews steps onto the ice on Thursday evening, he'll line up alongside Matthew Knies and Max Domi. Jacob Quillan is the forward who was bumped out of the Maple Leafs' lineup for the captain.
Matthews has 15 goals and 27 points in 33 games this season.