TORONTO -- Auston Matthews will likely miss his seventh straight game because of an upper-body injury when the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, SCRIPPS).
The Maple Leafs center and captain was placed on injured reserve Nov. 8, retroactive to Nov. 3.
“I do not see him for the game this week,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said Monday. “It’s a little bit of a holding pattern but he’s not getting worse, so that’s a good thing. … It’s just taking time. It’s taking long, but it is what it is.
“He’s doing what he needs to do to get back in the lineup and get healthy and our team just needs to push on without him right now.”
After Wednesday, the Maple Leafs have three days off until they host the Utah Hockey Club on Nov. 24.
Berube has said Matthews' injury is not related to the wrist injury that led to him having surgery to correct the issue during the offseason after the 2020-21 season.
The Maple Leafs, who have won five of six since the injury, are 40-20-2 when Matthews has been unavailable since he entered the League in the 2016-17 season. He missed two games during the Eastern Conference First Round last season because of an illness and an undisclosed injury, and one game during the regular season because of the flu.
Matthews, who has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in 13 games this season, last played in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild on Nov. 3, when he had an assist and three shots on goal in 22:12.
