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With their season on the line, the Maple Leafs had to go without their best player on Tuesday night.
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Centre Auston Matthews was not in the lineup for Game 5 at TD Garden against the Boston Bruins.
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The Bruins, ahead 3-1 in the best-of-seven series, would send the Leafs home for another early start to the summer with a victory. A Leafs win would shift the series back to Toronto for Game 6 on Thursday night.
Coach Sheldon Keefe has maintained that Matthews has been bothered by an illness, though speculation has grown that the 26-year-old superstar could be dealing with an injury as well.
When Keefe was asked on Tuesday morning whether there is something more to Matthews’ situation, he said he had already answered too many questions on the subject and did not elaborate.
It’s the first time in his National Hockey League career that Matthews has missed a Stanley Cup playoff game.
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Since dominating Game 2 of best-of-seven series last Monday with three points in the Leafs’ 3-2 win, Matthews has missed two practices and did not take part in two morning skates.
In Game 4 on Saturday in Toronto, he was pulled from the match by the Leafs’ medical staff following the second period. He didn’t record a point in Game 3 or Game 4.
Matthews was on the ice briefly on Tuesday morning in Boston before some of his teammates hit the ice for an optional skate.
In scoring 69 goals during the regular season, Matthews missed just one game. And it happened to be one of the Leafs’ better performances, coming on Dec. 16 at home in a 7-0 thrashing of Kyle Dubas’ Pittsburgh Penguins.
As expected, Keefe turned to Joseph Woll in net after Woll replaced Ilya Samsonov to start the third period in Game 4.
The Leafs’ lineup for Game 5:
FORWARDS
LW-C-RW
Tyler Bertuzzi-Max Domi-Mitch Marner
Matthew Knies-John Tavares-William Nylander
Nick Robertson-Pontus Holmberg-Calle Jarnkrok
Connor Dewar-David Kampf-Ryan Reaves
DEFENCE
Morgan Rielly-Ilya Lyubushkin
Simon Benoit-Jake McCabe
Joel Edmundson-Timothy Liljegren
GOAL
Joseph Woll
Ilya Samsonov
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