The center, who has missed five games with a knee sprain, was a full participant at practice Tuesday for the first time since sustaining the injury in a 3-2 overtime win against the New York Rangers on Jan. 25. Matthews said he initially tweaked the knee during warmups that night and that the injury gradually became worse as the game went on.
"I thought he looked good," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said Tuesday. "In terms of the outlook, today's practice was an important one in terms of getting him the proper reps in a (regular) jersey and all that. There hasn't been a ton of practice time with the team, but he has skated quite a bit. We'll see how he is in the morning and look to get word from the medical team in terms of his final status, but his intent was to come into practice today, to feel good and be ready to play tomorrow."
Matthews was on a line with left wing Michael Bunting and right wing William Nylander at practice Tuesday.
"I felt good," Matthews said. "I think everything is just kind of moving in the right direction, so it was nice to get back on a line and run through a full practice and get the timing back and everything like that ... just trying to get in the mindset in anticipation of playing and just go from there and see how I'm feeling tomorrow."
Matthews took part in practice Thursday wearing a no-contact jersey.
"It's been progressing pretty well, so I felt confident, felt good going into it," Matthews said. "See how everything feels tomorrow, but everything felt pretty good today and it's been feeling better and better every day."
Matthews, who missed two games with a separate injury Jan. 11 (2-1 win against the Nashville Predators) and Jan. 12 (4-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings), is second on the Maple Leafs with 25 goals and third with 53 points in 47 games.
"It's not fun watching, but you've got to put in a lot of work to get back, and so sometimes that can be a little bit draining," Matthews said. "But I think the couple weeks I've had have been really positive, so I'm really happy with the way we are moving here and I'm just taking it day by day."
Keefe said Matthews' return will benefit the team in obvious and subtle ways.
"It can't be overstated," Keefe said. "It's significant and it changes a lot about our team in terms of where everybody slots in. Not just what he brings with his contributions but also how it slots everybody else in and how it makes you that much deeper and that much harder to defend, especially on home ice with [the] last change. It creates challenges for the opposition. He's a world-class player."
The Maple Leafs (32-14-8) are tied for second in the Atlantic Division with the Tampa Bay Lightning, 13 points behind the first-place Boston Bruins. They are 2-3-0 in the five games Matthews has missed with the knee injury.
