Matthews pulled from Leafs playoff game by team doctor

Things are going from bad to worse for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

With Toronto down 3-0 against the Boston Bruins on Saturday night and down 2-1 in the series, star forward Auston Matthews suddenly exited Game 4 after 40 minutes.

Maple Leafs F Auston Matthews will not return to tonight’s game.

— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) April 28, 2024

Matthews had been dealing with an illness throughout the week, opting out of Leafs’ skates on both Wednesday and Friday.

Postgame, it was reported that Matthews was pulled by the team’s doctor related to the illness, as per TSN’s Mark Masters.

Sheldon Keefe says doctors pulled Auston Matthews due to an illness he’s been dealing with

— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) April 28, 2024

Mitch Marner scored Toronto’s first goal of the contest 5:43 into the third period to cut the deficit to 3-1, but that would hold as the final score as Toronto now trails 3-1 in the series as well.

Matthews set career highs in both goals and points this year, scoring 69 regular season goals in 81 games while totalling 107 points. In the playoffs, he came into Saturday with one goal and two assists in three games.

The absence of Matthews for any series of time would be rather noticeable for Toronto, who have noticeably struggled to score throughout their entire postseason series.

Matthews wasn’t the only Leaf to see his night end early, however. After giving up three goals on 16 shots, Toronto goalie Ilya Samsonov was pulled after 40 minutes in favour of Joseph Woll.

Max Domi ultimately replaced Matthews on the Leafs’ top line, skating alongside Marner and Tyler Bertuzzi.

Given the way that NHL teams tend to be secretive come playoff time, don’t expect much more on Matthews’ condition tonight.

Toronto and Boston return to action Tuesday night for Game 5 at Boston’s TD Garden.

More to come…

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Leafs 2024 first round playoff schedule

• Game 5: Tuesday, April 30, Toronto at Boston, 7 pm
• Game 6: Thursday, May 2, Boston at Toronto, TBD*
• Game 7: Saturday, May 4, Toronto at Boston, TBD*

*if necessary