Toronto Maple Leafs stars Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner were notably absent from Friday’s optional skate following Thursday’s 6–5 loss to the NHL-worst San Jose Sharks.
Toronto rallied late against the Sharks, erasing a two-goal deficit in the final minute to force overtime, but ultimately fell in the shootout.
Leafs head coach Craig Berube, however, explained their absence by highlighting the heavy workload the two forwards had endured the day before, both logging over 25 minutes.
“The minutes got a little high,” Berube said. “With the state of the game and where we were at—Max [Domi] was in the [penalty] box, too, and wasn’t available—I played our skilled guys a lot down the stretch to try to tie the game up.”
After Matthews and Marner spent extended shifts trying to lead the team to a much-needed win in the race for the Atlantic Division, they failed to capitalize in overtime or the shootout.
Berube emphasized that while winning remains the priority, load management and properly handling minutes and workloads will be key moving forward.
After Matthews and Marner spent extended shifts trying to lead the team to a much-needed win in the race for the Atlantic Division, they failed to capitalize in overtime or the shootout.
Berube emphasized that while winning remains the priority, load management and properly handling minutes and workloads will be key moving award.
“I don’t want their minutes to get that high,” Berube said. “But every game is different. I want to win games, and so do they. It’s not like they haven’t done that before, you know?
“They rest today, get ready for tomorrow.”
Matthews had not played more than 22 minutes since he did against the Sharks on March 3, in another shootout loss to San Jose. Meanwhile, Marner had only topped 23 minutes once between that March 3 game and Thursday’s match.
The Maple Leafs have 10 games remaining in their regular-season schedule, including two matchups against the division leaders, the Florida Panthers.
Toronto (43-25-4) fell to the second place in the Atlantic Division following the Panthers’ (44-25-3) win on Friday, now sitting one point behind Florida in the standings and one above the Tampa Bay Lightining.
