Auston Matthews absent from Maple Leafs practice on Thursday ahead of Red Wings tilt

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Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews was absent from practice on Thursday at the Ford Performance Centre.

The Leafs’ No. 1 centre is day to day with an upper-body injury, an issue that kept him out of the lineup on Tuesday against the Boston Bruins.

As we’ve seen in the past, the Leafs didn’t flinch without their best player. With a 4-0 win against the Bruins, the Leafs improved to 36-19-2 in Matthews’ career when he has not been in the lineup.

In the victory, the Leafs scored three goals on the power play after scoring just four in their previous 13 games.

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The expectation on the outside would be that Matthews won’t play in the Leafs’ two games this weekend, a back-to-back set at Scotiabank Arena against the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Canadiens on Friday and Saturday respectively.

Leafs coach Craig Berube wasn’t willing to go so far as to rule Matthews out.

“Still a day-to-day thing right now,” Berube said.

Does Berube expect Matthews to play this weekend?

“That’s to be determined still,” Berube said. “It’s hard for me to answer that question knowing what I know right now with him today. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day. I wish I could, but I can’t.”

Berube confirmed that Matthews didn’t skate on Thursday on his own before practice go underway.

It would be unusual for a player to suit up for a game after not practising the day before.

An upper-body issue also caused Matthews to miss some time during training camp.

The Leafs’ next two games after Saturday are on Tuesday at home against the Ottawa Senators and on Wednesday on the road against the Washington Capitals.

At practice on Thursday, Berube didn’t make any changes to his forward lines.

Max Domi remained in Matthews’ spot between Mitch Marner and Matthew Knies; John Tavares centred William Nylander and Max Pacioretty; Pontus Holmberg was between Bobby McMann and Nick Robertson while David Kampf centred Steven Lorentz and Ryan Reaves.

Defenceman Jani Hakanpaa (knee) and forward Connor Dewar (shoulder), meanwhile, both remain with the Toronto Marlies on their conditioning stints.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

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