Matthews has missed one game this season — Toronto's 4-0 win over Boston on Tuesday — with the upper-body injury.
Auston Matthews will miss his second straight game on Friday as he continues to deal with an upper-body injury.
Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube confirmed the news following Toronto's optional morning skate ahead of their Hall of Fame game against the Detroit Red Wings.
"He won't play tonight," Berube said on Friday morning.
Toronto's head coach expressed optimism that Matthews could still play on Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens, however, he wouldn't go as far as saying he'd likely be in the lineup.
"Yeah," Berube said grayly. "We're going in the right direction. It's good news."
Matthews missed Tuesday's 4-0 win over the Boston Bruins with the upper-body injury. The 27-year-old dealt with an upper-body injury during training camp, but was ready to play in Toronto's season-opener against the Canadiens.
According to TSN's Chris Johnston on Thursday's Early Trading, Matthews' absent isn't concerning to this point.
"Don't hit the alarm bells too loudly, at least not yet. Really, this has been all part of the plan for Matthews since he missed Tuesday's game, was they just want to take it day-by-day, give his body a chance to rest from this injury that he's been managing, really, back to training camp to a certain degree and give him a chance to use this week to rest," Johnston said.
"I wouldn't expect Matthews to play Friday when the Leafs host Detroit. They have another game Saturday against Montreal, still potentially a chance he gets into that one. But that'll be determined Friday whether he's able to return to Scotiabank Arena, maybe get on the ice, and really just see where his body is at at that point in time."
Toronto is 36-19-2 with Matthews out of the lineup, since he joined the team. Berube said the Maple Leafs will need to play the same against Boston when they step onto the ice to face Detroit on Friday.
"I've seen this over the years. We all have. One of your best players is out of the lineup and everybody elevates their role a little bit, everybody gets a little bit more of a different role at times," Berube said.
"They did a good job. They did what we had to do, so it's going to have to be the same tonight."