The Maple Leafs and Sabres (optional) skated at KeyBank Center in Buffalo on Saturday.
Leafs captain Auston Matthews will miss the final 16 games of the season after suffering a Grade 3 MCL tear and quad contusion courtesy a knee-on-knee hit from Anaheim Ducks defenceman Radko Gudas.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety suspended Gudas for five games.
“It’s not enough,” said coach Craig Berube. “I mean, you lose your star player, your captain, for the year, the guy doing it is a repeat offender, it just doesn’t seem like enough.”
“I believe Auston’s been ruled out for quite a while, right?” said centre John Tavares. “So it’s going to be more than five games is what he’s missing, so it easily could’ve been longer. Can’t say five games is nothing but, yeah, easily could have seen it been longer.”
Gudas stuck out his knee to deny Matthews a scoring chance late in the second period on Thursday night. The 28-year-old centre needed help getting to the dressing room.
Is the NHL doing enough to protect its stars?
“To see a player go down like that and be in as much pain as he was getting off the ice, and a guy like that who is a repeat offender of occasions like that, you know, I don’t think it was enough is all I’ll say about that,” said winger Matthew Knies.
Radko Gudas has now been suspended for 26 total games during his NHL career, forfeiting more than $855,000 in salary
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) March 14, 2026
Jake McCabe called the decision by George Parros, who is the head of the NHL’s Department of Player Safety, “frustrating” before biting his lip.
“I can sit here and say whatever, but it’s not going to change it,” McCabe said. “I’m not in charge. I’m not George sitting in the chair making the phone call and making those decisions so it doesn’t matter what the hell I say.”
Gudas had a phone hearing with the Department of Player Safety on Friday.
McCabe plays a hard-nosed style like Gudas, but sees no mitigating factors in the play.
“I play plenty hard,” McCabe said. “I haven’t been suspended.”
Gudas has now been suspended five times in his NHL career.
‘Don’t think it was enough’: Leafs frustrated by length of Gudas suspension Auston Matthews is out for the rest of the season after suffering an MCL injury due to a ‘dirty’ knee-on-knee hit from Ducks defenceman Radko Gudas, who was handed a five-game suspension for the play. The Leafs don’t feel like the punishment was as severe as it should’ve been given that Gudas is a repeat offender.
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Agent Judd Moldaver, who represents Matthews, issued a scathing statement on Friday night after the NHL handed down its punishment.
“In light of the obvious severity of the play, I am disappointed and shocked the league would allow such a ruling,” Moldaver said in a statement issued to TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston. “A phone hearing and five games is laughable and preposterous. While the process is set in our CBA, that this was the discipline is reckless and ridiculous.
“This decision results in a further loss of confidence in the disciplinary process for all players. Players and fans deserve better. The Player Safety Department should be suspended.”
Teammates have not had much time to check in with Matthews since the abrupt end to his season. Friday was a travel day for the team. Toronto is starting a two-game trip in Buffalo on Saturday night with a stop in Minnesota coming up on Sunday.
Knies planned to reach out to Matthews on Saturday afternoon or on Sunday. Berube had a “pretty short” check in with Matthews on Friday. Tavares also “briefly connected” with Matthews via text on Friday.
“It’ll be good to see him after the next couple games and pick up his spirits,” said Tavares. “It’s difficult, obviously, any time you have an injury, but I know he’ll turn the page and do whatever he’s got to do to take care of himself and respond and get himself healthy and put himself in a really good spot moving forward. He’s played a lot of hockey.
“It’s been obviously an up and down year for us, and I know how much he’s taken the responsibility to lead the way and find solutions and do everything he can to help the team. So give him a chance here to kind of regroup and get some rest and heal it.”
Leafs say Matthews is still processing abrupt end to ‘rollercoaster’ season Auston Matthews sustained a significant knee injury from the hit by Radko Gudas on Thursday night and will miss the remainder of the season. The Maple Leafs say Matthews is still processing the abrupt end to his season, which head coach Craig Berube calls a ‘rollercoaster’ ride that had a lot of noise.
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With Matthews writhing in pain on the ice on Thursday, none of the four other Leafs skaters engaged Gudas physically. Defenceman Morgan Rielly and winger William Nylander admitted they should have done more in that moment.
The team addressed the lack of a response in the second intermission and liked how they played in the final frame en route to a 6-4 win.
“Certainly, we responded in the third period, which was obviously needed,” McCabe said. “Unfortunate that that’s what it took for us to play like we did finally after that stretch of games.”
Thursday’s win snapped an eight-game skid (0-6-2) coming out of the Olympic break.
The lack of an initial response dominated conversation in Toronto in the wake of the game.
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff expects the Leafs to be “as hungry as they possibly can with what happened.”
Can lack of initial response to Gudas knee on Matthews be a turning point for Leafs? The Maple Leafs took accountability for not having a strong enough response immediately after Radko Gudas’ knee-on-knee hit on Auston Matthews, but are proud of how they stepped up in the third to make the Ducks pay and hope to carry that energy into tonight’s battle in Buffalo.
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Toronto’s team toughness has been a talking point throughout the Matthews era. Early in the 2023-24 season, the Leafs held a team meeting after there was no response to Brad Marchand after the then-Bruins winger injured young defenceman Timothy Liljegren with a controversial trip.
The Leafs are hoping what happened can be a turning point when it comes to how they defend each other on the ice.
“We talked about it,” Knies said. “We want to stick up for each other and be a tight unit in this locker room, and I think we just didn’t do a good enough job of that in the moment. But I think in the third period we showed that we can fight back and play hard.”
The Sabres experienced a similar situation last season. In February 2025, there was no response from any Sabres player after a head hit on Tage Thompson by New Jersey’s Stefan Noesen. The Sabres held a meeting to address what happened.
Ruff describes that as a “hard lesson” for his group.
“You learn from it, you move on, you grow as a team, you talk about ‘It starts with me,’” said Ruff. “You talk about what true teammates are like and what they’ll do for each other.”
“That was a wake-up call for us,” said Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin. “We told each other, ‘This is never going to happen again.’ This year we’ve really worked on the team chemistry and the brotherhood and now it just comes naturally. If someone does anything to one of the guys in here, I’ll protect them. That’s the culture we’ve created here.”
How do you work on chemistry?
“Drink beer,” Dahlin said with a laugh. “It’s a mix of everything. You spend so much time with each other, you really have to find ways to get the group together and really get to know each other on a deep level that’s different than just being a teammate. That comes with going to dinners and, like I said, drinking some beers. Talk, get to know each other, I think that’s the most important thing.”
‘Drink beer’: What can Leafs learn from how Sabres built team toughness? Sabres players Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, Owen Power and head coach Lindy Ruff discuss how they received a wake-up call last year in regards to not sticking up for each other, and have created a culture that they are now all-in for one another and credit that as one of the reasons for their success this season.
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Since the trade deadline, Berube has been reluctant to talk about where this Leafs season went wrong. The coach had hoped such conversations could wait until the end of the year.
But after Saturday’s skate, Berube indulged a couple big-picture questions.
“We never got any traction throughout the season and consistency that we were looking for,” Berube said. “We did have some good runs and [then] it stopped again. Like, we just didn’t keep it going. It’s been a rollercoaster season.”
Berube was asked about the role of injuries in that inconsistency.
“Yeah, injuries, but everybody’s got injuries,” he said. “You know, you’ve got to deal with that in this game. This year there’s been a lot of injuries, I think, throughout the league. So we can’t look at that. That’s an excuse almost, you know. But … right from the get-go, with our goaltending situation, where it was at, we didn’t have that one-two punch at all for a long time. Different things, but it’s not the time to get into all that, guys.”
Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz formed a formidable tandem during the 2024-25 season. That consistently strong goaltending helped Toronto finish first in the Atlantic Division and push the Florida Panthers to seven games in the second round of the playoffs.
Woll missed the start of this season due to personal leave with Stolarz struggling under the weight of an increased workload. Stolarz then sustained a nerve-related injury right before Woll returned to the lineup in November and did not play again until late January.
Leafs Ice Chips: Berube adjusts without Matthews and reflects on where season went wrong Craig Berube was asked about the Maple Leafs’ rollercoaster season and says he feels like they never really got any traction and injuries didn’t help that either. Mark Masters has more on Berube’s pre-game availability.
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Woll will make a third straight start on Saturday in Buffalo.
“I kind of want to just see him play,” Berube explained. “Looking at his game, he’s been sharp. I’ve liked his game. I just want to see him play some games in a row here and see where he’s at. You know, I think it’s a good time to do that.”
Stolarz is scheduled to start on Sunday against the Wild.
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Michael Pezzetta is still beaming about his Leafs debut on Thursday night.
“Getting a win … and then to be able to come out and see my whole family and all my friends and stuff, like, I couldn’t have written it up any better,” the 28-year-old Toronto native said.
The gritty winger dropped the gloves with Anaheim’s Jeffrey Viel off the opening faceoff.
“We both kind of just looked at each other and knew it was going to happen, so it was kind of perfect,” Pezzetta said. “Not much really had to be said.”
Pezzetta gestured to the crowd afterwards. What did it feel like?
“It’s just like max adrenaline,” he said. “I was pretty wired after that. I needed probably the whole first period to cool off. I had so much adrenaline going there. So, yeah, it was just a ton of fun.”
Pezzetta’s mom appeared to be quite nervous while watching from the stands.
“She’s not big into fighting so it’s always funny watching her,” he said. “We had a good laugh.”
Pezzetta only logged three minutes and 43 seconds, but earned a positive review from Berube and will be back in the lineup on Saturday night.
“Any time you’re down in the minors all year and you get called up here at the end of the season, like, any of these games, they’re all kind of tryout games,” he said. “You’re trying to prove what you can do and prove to management and to everybody what you can do and the role you can play.”
‘Couldn’t have written it up any better’: Pezzetta felt ‘max adrenaline’ in Leafs debut Toronto native Michael Pezzetta recaps his debut with the Maple Leafs, which he says he ‘couldn’t have written it up any better’, and describes the emotions he was feeling when he fought off the opening draw. Pezzetta discusses what the games down the stretch mean to him and how he’s viewing them as an audition for next year.
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Leafs lines at Saturday’s skate:
Maccelli – Tavares – Nylander
Knies – Domi – Cowan
Joshua – Groulx – Robertson
Pezzetta – Quillan – Jarnkrok
Lorentz
Rielly – Carlo
McCabe – Ekman-Larsson
Benoit – Myers
Stecher
Woll starts
Stolarz
Leafs power play units at Saturday’s skate:
QB: Ekman-Larsson
Flanks: Maccelli, Nylander
Middle: Knies
Net front: Tavares
QB: Rielly
Flanks: Cowan, Domi
Middle: Robertson
Net front: Joshua