Auston Matthews took a seat Tuesday.
Minus the NHL’s reigning goal king, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ porous power play finally stepped up. The penalty kill was at attention, too.
Matthews sat out his team’s 4-0 victory over the visiting Boston Bruins with an upper-body injury on a night where the club’s special teams — finally — were in unison.
“Maybe everybody just has a little bit more compete to their game,” said Leafs winger William Nylander, who scored on a man advantage in the second period and set up another goal in the third. “It’s hard to cover for (Matthews), but everybody did their job.”
Toronto, which entered the game with an ugly 4-for-40 on the power play this season to sit 31st overall despite a boatload of offensive talent, connected three times off seven chances and killed all six Boston opportunities.
“I don’t think we’re going to get carried away thinking we got anything solved,” said Toronto defenceman Morgan Rielly, who had a goal and two assists on the man advantage. “It was a matter of time, it was about sticking with the process.”
That process included suiting up without Matthews against an opponent that had gone 8-0-0 over the teams’ last eight regular-season meetings, and beat Toronto in seven games in the first round of last spring’s playoffs.
Leafs head coach Craig Berube said following the morning skate his captain, who’s listed as day-to-day, has been “fighting through” the issue, but added it’s not related to past wrist problems.
Matthews has five goals and 11 points in 13 games this season. He picked up an assist and played more than 22 minutes in Sunday’s 2-1 overtime road loss to the Minnesota Wild.
“Everybody just needs to do their job out there,” Berube said following the morning skate of his group’s mindset without its best player. “I don’t think you focus on, ‘Oh, Auston’s not playing so what are we going to do?’ We’ve got a good team, got good players. People are going to get a little different look in situations, lines, things like that. They’re capable guys, good players.
“You’ve just got to go play.”
Leafs forward Max Domi centred the top line between Mitch Marner and Matthew Knies with the three-time Maurice (Rocket) Richard Trophy winner — including the 69 he scored in 2023-24 — looking on.
Marner and Knies each finished with a goal and an assist on the power play Tuesday as Toronto improved to a surprising 36-19-2 all-time in the regular season when Matthews is absent.
“These guys have had us for a little bit now,” Knies said post-game of the Bruins. “We were all a little bit frustrated here, and we wanted to play physical and get on them. It sucks losing your best player, but everyone stepped up. It showed that we have a lot of depth in this room.
“Great team effort.”