On Saturday Headlines, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman provided his latest intel on the fallout around the league and within the Maple Leafs organization after the Radko Gudas knee on Auston Matthews, whose season is over due to a Grade 3 MCL tear.
Friedman on the level of league-wide chatter about the incident:
At this time of year, after the trade deadline, there is not so much “news,” so to speak, but everybody was talking about it. While making calls, everyone had an opinion, and everyone wanted to hear what I was hearing from others.
Friedman on the status of Auston Matthews’ injury rehab/timeline:
The Maple Leafs and Auston Matthews are hopeful he won’t need surgery. They won’t know for probably a week or two, but they are hopeful he won’t need it.
The key thing here is, even if he does need surgery, there isn’t any concern at this time that it would take him into next season. They believe he’ll be able to recover over the summer and will start next season on time.
It also allows Matthews to start the clock on how he feels. A lot has happened in a very short time in Toronto, from the time they last kind of touched base with him about how they felt about things at the beginning of February. Since he is not going to play now, he has some time to think about it. They’ll have time to talk to him about it.
Sometime over the next couple of months, we are going to get a better idea of how everybody feels about the overall future of Matthews and the Maple Leafs.
For what it’s worth, this should be a two-way street, as far as revisiting the feelings about the future between the two sides and the expectations going forward. Matthews just finished a season in which he was 70th in the NHL in points per game at the time of his injury (behind defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and forwards such as ROR and Trocheck), as the second-highest paid player in the league. This wasn’t akin to the Oilers letting down McDavid as he piled up another 120+ point season. The Leafs failed this season in no small part because their franchise player — some extenuating circumstances aside, as far as coaching, deployment, and linemates — fell way short of expectations.
Friedman on the potential ripple effect of the incident within the Leafs‘ organization:
There is no question in my mind that internally, it will have ramifications on the future and the construction of the team. I tried to speak to as many people as I could. Words like “embarrassed” and “apoplectic” were thrown around about how everybody felt about what happened.
It was a pretty emotional scene in the second intermission. Craig Berube said he talked to the players about it. You saw the way they came out for the third against Anaheim and tonight against Buffalo.
I heard that the players on the ice said they realized Matthews had been tripped, but didn’t realize how severe it was. Morgan Rielly, who is a really good human, came out publicly and said he felt terrible about it. I heard privately that he was also extremely apologetic.
There is no question that the way it happened will have ramifications on the direction of the team and roster.
Friedman on the DoPS’ five-game ruling:
I tried to ask about how we got to five games. The Maple Leafs’ Brad Treliving called the league. He made a case for a big suspension, as far as I understand. He said, “This is bad for the league. It is our captain and best player. Imagine if we were in a playoff race. Imagine if we lost playoff games to it.”
They talked about some of the suspensions they’ve received; Morgan Rielly got five games, and it was six down to four for Jason Spezza. They brought up Matt Cooke’s seven-game suspension in the 2014 playoffs. They felt it was a similar play, and they argued very strongly for the fact that even though Gudas hasn’t been suspended in a while, he should be punished severely.
The Ducks came to the defense of their player. They said Gudas hadn’t been suspended in seven years. They brought it up.
This is what the Players’ Association did, from what I understand: They came in and said, “Here are all the kneeing suspensions from the last 15 years.” They said Cooke had the seven-gamer; there were three four-game ones — including Spezza’s reduction and Kaliyev’s, which had two preseason games — and nine were two-game ones. Three were one game.
The PA said, “Look, with kneeing suspensions, 12 of the last 15 are one or two games.” They have been appealing a lot, and I think the league is wary of that. The PA walks a fine line; they represent both Matthews and Gudas.
Judd Moldaver, who is Matthew’s representative, released an angry quote last night where he said, “There has to be a better way to do this. We should be talking about this right now.”
It is his client, and he defends him, but he also thinks it is bad for the league.
Whether it was Brendan Shanahan or now Brad Treliving, the Leafs have been making a case to the league on behalf of their players following these incidents for years, and have gotten exactly nowhere toward more equitable treatment. Maybe it’s (far past) time they took the gloves off a little bit themselves and started throwing their weight around publicly to apply real pressure on the league, beyond just following the league-approved channels and unsuccessfully pleading their case to the DoPS. Certainly, statements like “it is what it is” and “we’re upset because it’s our player” from head coach Craig Berube today fell well short of holding anyone’s feet to the fire or steering the public discourse in a way that might influence change. As the league’s top revenue-driving franchise, the Maple Leafs naturally own a bully pulpit if they ever choose to use it.
