{"id":574270,"date":"2026-03-30T13:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574270\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T13:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:47:08","slug":"radko-gudas-status-in-doubt-as-toronto-maple-leafs-prepare-for-auston-matthews-revenge-game-vs-anaheim-ducks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574270\/","title":{"rendered":"Radko Gudas\u2019 status in doubt as Toronto Maple Leafs prepare for Auston Matthews revenge game vs. Anaheim Ducks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> have talked a lot about their lack of response to Radko Gudas<\/a>\u2019 season-ending hit on Auston Matthews<\/a> earlier this month, and Monday\u2019s game had been expected to provide the team their chance for to answer back.<\/p>\n

Gudas, however, may not be in the lineup when the Maple Leafs face the Ducks in Anaheim Monday night. The team\u2019s captain was injured in a win over the Calgary Flames<\/a> last week and did not play in Saturday\u2019s loss to the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>. TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger said Monday that Gudas is believed to be doubtful to face Toronto. <\/p>\n

Gudas being absent for the game would take some of the air out of the matchup, which the Maple Leafs quickly turned their focus to after a 5-1 blowout loss to the St. Louis Blues<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously a game that means a lot for our side, so we\u2019ll be pretty fired up,\u201d forward William Nylander<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t go out and do stupid things \u2013 suspensions and things like that,” head coach Craig Berube<\/a> cautioned. \u201cThat\u2019s not what it\u2019s all about. But we definitely have to go out and play a physical, hard game against that team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berube said he brought up the team\u2019s lack of response to the Gudas hit, in which the veteran defenceman ran knee-on-knee on Matthews to earn five-game suspension, for more than a week afterwards.<\/p>\n

Nylander and veteran defenceman Morgan Rielly<\/a> were both on the ice when Gudas delivered the hit and expressed disappointment in themselves post-game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s on me for not responding earlier to Gudas,\u201d Rielly said. \u201cI didn\u2019t understand how bad he got him \u2026 but I take full responsibility for not being the first one in there or being in there quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShould have probably gone in there,\u201d Nylander added. \u201cBut in the situation at the time, I didn\u2019t really understand until, like, 15 seconds later there was more than what I thought it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, should have jumped in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hit from Gudas left Matthews with a grade 3 MCL tear and quad contusion in his left leg. He underwent knee surgery on March 19 and was given a timeline of 12 weeks for recovery.<\/p>\n

Gudas returned from his suspension last week to face the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> and was injured in his second game back against the Flames.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really hate the way it ended up, the point of contact,\u201d Gudas said of the hit prior to his return. \u201cI\u2019m not a fan of that. I never want to injure anybody out there. It\u2019s a hard-fought game. It\u2019s just, yeah, I never want to go out there and hurt anybody. I feel terrible about the outcome. I just committed to the play, and unfortunately that was the point of contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old blueliner noted at the time that he had also spoken to Matthews over the phone to apologize.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to, really hard, to keep in conversation,\u201d Gudas said. \u201cJust wanted to make sure that [he knew] it was not my intention to hurt anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s game means little in the standings for Toronto, who are 13 points of a playoff spot and closing on being mathematically eliminated from contention.<\/p>\n

The Ducks sit first in the Pacific Division with a three-point lead over the Oilers with a game in hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs have talked a lot about their lack of response to Radko Gudas\u2019 season-ending hit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[118538,16159,64,63,575,281871,85,113126],"class_list":["post-574270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-anaheim-ducks-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-24","tag-apple-news","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-radko-gudas-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8475462","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\/574270","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=574270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}