{"id":279717,"date":"2025-11-12T14:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T14:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/279717\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T14:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T14:04:07","slug":"craig-berube-says-he-didnt-like-nikita-zadorovs-hit-on-auston-matthews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/279717\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Berube says he didn\u2019t like Nikita Zadorov\u2019s hit on Auston Matthews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>\u00a0star forward\u00a0Auston Matthews<\/a>\u00a0left Tuesday\u2019s loss to the\u00a0Boston Bruins<\/a>\u00a0with a lower-body injury in the second period and did not return.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old\u00a0centre\u00a0was hit by Bruins defenceman\u00a0Nikita Zadorov<\/a>\u00a0from behind along the boards prior to exiting.<\/p>\n

Leafs head coach\u00a0Craig Berube<\/a>\u00a0told reporters after the game he wasn\u2019t entirely sure when Matthews suffered the injury but he was no fan of Zadorov\u2019s hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a penalty, personally. But I\u2019m not the referee. I don\u2019t like it. I don\u2019t like the hit. [Matthews] is in a vulnerable position. So, whatever. Nothing I can do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Boston blueliner was not penalized on the play and told reporters after the game there was no ill intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a normal play. I didn\u2019t really hit him. I hit my right shoulder, 99 per cent of my hits in the NHL are with my right shoulder,\u201d Zadorov said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was really no intention to hurt him. I play hard against top players on the other team, that\u2019s my job.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if the injury seems serious, Berube said it was too early to tell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see tomorrow morning. Right now, I mean, it\u2019s lower-body, we\u2019ll just see tomorrow how he is,\u201d Berube said regarding Matthews.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know exactly, I really can\u2019t give you guys a timeline or how serious it is right now. So, I\u2019m not sure when he hurt it to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthews did not have a point in 10:51 of ice time before exiting as the Leafs fell 5-3 to drop their third straight game.<\/p>\n

The latest on Stolarz<\/p>\n

Goaltender\u00a0Anthony Stolarz<\/a>\u00a0was also injured Tuesday night<\/a>\u00a0and departed after the first period without returning.<\/p>\n

Berube was a little more optimistic about his prognosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that\u2019s serious. I think he\u2019ll be fine,\u201d the Leafs\u2019 bench boss said.<\/p>\n

He stopped eight of 11 shots before giving way to backup\u00a0Dennis Hildeby<\/a>. Stolarz has a 3.51 goals-against average and a .884 save percentage in 13 games so far this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto Maple Leafs\u00a0star forward\u00a0Auston Matthews\u00a0left Tuesday\u2019s loss to the\u00a0Boston Bruins\u00a0with a lower-body injury in the second period and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[16159,64,161671,63,162094,575,162095,85,113126],"class_list":["post-279717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-apple-news","tag-au","tag-auston-matthews-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8479318","tag-australia","tag-boston-bruins-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-6","tag-nhl","tag-nikita-zadorov-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8477507","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-10"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}