"We'll have to see how they feel after skating today," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said after each forward practiced Saturday. "They got through the practice well today and that's obviously a positive. But we won't know their official status for the game until we see how they are the remainder of the day and how they wake up tomorrow."
Matthews missed a 5-2 home loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday with an upper-body injury. The forward leads the NHL with 32 goals.
Nylander has not played since a 5-3 win at the Calgary Flames on April 5 after entering NHL COVID-19 protocol. The forward, who has scored 30 points (13 goals, 17 assists) in 39 games, has skated the past two days.
"We got back from the road and I met someone who had tested positive for COVID the next day, so I had to isolate for nine days and had nine nights of tests," Nylander said.
"I was worried about me getting it and giving it to some of the guys, which is something I obviously didn't want to happen, so over those few days where I was being tested every day I was pretty nervous. Thank God nobody got it. That was the No. 1 thing I was worried about."
Nylander said he feels good and stayed in shape by riding a stationary bike in his room during quarantine.
"This time we've played without him, some areas of our game have really slowed down," Keefe told TSN. "When you take someone like Will and his strengths [out], with how he brings the puck up the ice, how he gets to the neutral zone, how he attacks the offensive blue line, I think those are all areas that our offense has really dried up, and we haven't had nearly as much control of the puck. That's something he does very well for us and it'll be nice to have that back."
Toronto is 1-for-42 on the power play in its past 17 games. The unit of Matthews, Nylander, Mitchell Marner, Morgan Rielly and John Tavares was together at practice, according to TSN.
"As we've gone through this stretch here, we've tried a little bit of everything, including having those guys together and it didn't work for us," Keefe said. "But we've looked at a number of different things, and we think that we probably would have gone to it sooner had we not lost Will and Auston. I think the timing is right here now, and the fact that we had both yesterday to get some rest and a practice day today, it's a good opportunity for us to just get refreshed and start anew."
Keefe said goalie Jack Campbell, who has lost two straight after starting the season with an NHL-record 11 consecutive victories, will start Sunday.
The Canucks have not played since March 24 because of a COVID-19 outbreak.
"All we can do is, first of all, prepare our own team," Keefe said. "The focus today is just getting ourselves back playing the way we're capable of in all areas of our game. We want to use that rest day (Friday) and today's practice day to get refocused again. That's my main focus here for us."
