After Wednesday’s practice, head coach Craig Berube discussed the latest with Auston Matthews (out for Thursday), OEL and Pontus Holmberg’s status, and the ugly win over the Islanders on New Year’s Eve.
Practice Lines – Jan. 1
#Leafs lines during practice Jan. 1/25
Pacioretty-Tavares-Marner
Knies-Kampf-Nylander
McMann-Domi-Robertson
Lorentz-Dewar-Reaves
Matthews (grey jersey)
Absent: Holmberg (illness)Rielly-Myers
McCabe-Tanev
Benoit-OEL
Rifai-TimminsWoll
Hildeby@BodogCA— David Alter (@dalter) January 1, 2025
Do you feel like there is progress being made with Auston Matthews’ situation?
Berube: I do. Seeing him out in practice — competing in a full practice — is progress. He is going in the right direction, which is great.
I know there is no timeline, and we are all looking for one. But it is great having him out there.
Do you regularly check in with Matthews during this process, or do you kind of leave him be?
Berube: I do check in with him when I see him. I don’t bother him too much. When you are injured as a player, and they are always asking you, “How are you feeling? What’s going on?” it gets annoying. When he is available, he will let us know.
Do you always assume Matthews is not available until he says so in terms of planning out your lineup and how you are deploying your centermen?
Berube: For sure. Right now, with the situation we’re in with him, I am preparing the team to play without him and the lineup to go without him. We’ll know when he is ready, and we will make adjustments from there.
Is it a case where Matthews would not play without practicing in full first?
Berube: That would be really ideal — to work with the line that he is going to play with, compete, and do all of the things that are needed in practice. It might be two practices.
Is it safe to say that it doesn’t look like Matthews will be in for the weekend?
Berube: Well, I don’t know. Tomorrow is all I care about. We have a game tomorrow. He is not in the game tomorrow. Let’s not jump to conclusions on it. You never know. Let’s just focus on tomorrow right now.
What is Pontus Holmberg’s status for tomorrow?
Berube: He is feeling better. I expect him to come on the trip, but we kept him away today. That will be a decision we have to make tomorrow. We’ll get him on the ice and see how he feels.
Is Olver Ekman-Larsson good to go for Thursday’s game?
Berube: Oliver should be good to go for tomorrow. He got a little work in yesterday, and he finished practice. He should be good to go.
You mentioned that yesterday’s win over the Islanders wasn’t pretty. What do you take away from it after reviewing the game tape?
Berube: I think what we can take away from it is the third period and how we defended. I think we gave up two chances in the third, which is very good. We protected the lead very well.
Listen, it was a battle. It was a pretty physical game. I expect the same tomorrow. I thought we were pretty physical in the game, but we can clean things up.
I think we are doing a pretty good job (of handling the lead). There are a handful of games where we are up by one goal, and it is kind of a B game or whatever you call it, and we find a way to win. That’s important because you are going to have those nights.
I thought we protected things well in the third and didn’t give them much.
Is it the structure — the habits to fall back on — that allow the team to win in that type of game?
Berube: For sure, you rely on your structure always, and you rely on your details — your stick details, your positioning, and battles.
Do the back-to-back games against the Islanders cut down on pre-scout time?
Berube: Home-and-home is a little more ideal when you’re not traveling anywhere, and you can bring guys in the day after the game because you’re at home. You can go over the film in the morning and get prepared for the game the next day. That is a little bit easier with a home-and-home back-to-back.
Auston Matthews on whether he will be able to put the injury behind him this season: “I don’t know… I hope so… That’s the goal”
With the appropriate amount of rest, do you feel like you will be able to put [the injury] behind you at some point this season?
Matthews: I don’t know. I hope so. That is obviously the goal. It is tricky with these things sometimes. It is a physical, contact sport. Things happen out there that are out of your control sometimes.
You just try to manage it as best as I can, and we can. We’ll just go from there.
… It has been good progress this week. It is always a good gauge getting into practice and seeing how you feel in the competitive aspect of drills.
A lot of positive signs. We’ll take it day by day, hopefully keep progressing, and see where we are at later this week.
