Cryptic remarks from Sheldon Keefe about Matthews very concerning

Auston Matthews took to the ice for the Leafs morning skate ahead of game five, but some post-skate comments from Sheldon Keefe are raising a lot of questions.

Matthews was pulled from the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup ahead of the third period of their 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins Saturday night with what Sheldon Keefe called an illness.

Coming into the series, most of the talk in Toronto was about how the Leafs were lucky that Florida had leapfrogged the Bruins at the end of the season, as the Bruins were a better matchup for the Leafs stylistically. However, with William Nylander missing 3/4 of the games in the series and Auston Matthews dealing with a mysterious ailment, things have certainly not gone as well as anyone had hoped they would - and now the Leafs are on the brink of elimination.

Keefe also noted that Matthews had been battling his illness for almost the entire series, which was evident as he has missed the last three practices and has not looked like himself since his 3-point effort in Game 2.


Following Matthews' brief skate this morning, Sheldon Keefe was very non-committal about whether or not Matthews would play tonight in Game 5. The Leafs' bench boss said the final call will be one for the doctors to make. Beyond that, he refused to give any additional information on the illness or if something else was impacting Matthews' ability to play.