{"id":278319,"date":"2025-11-12T13:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T13:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/278319\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T13:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T13:09:11","slug":"craig-berube-says-he-didnt-like-nikita-zadorovs-hit-on-auston-matthews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/278319\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Berube says he didn\u2019t like Nikita Zadorov\u2019s hit on Auston Matthews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> star forward Auston Matthews<\/a> left Tuesday\u2019s loss to the Boston Bruins<\/a> with a lower-body injury in the second period and did not return.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old was hit by Bruins defenceman Nikita Zadorov<\/a> from behind along the boards prior to exiting.<\/p>\n

Leafs head coach Craig Berube<\/a> told 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

\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

When asked if the injury seems serious, Berube said it was too early to tell.<\/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 Anthony Stolarz<\/a> was also injured Tuesday night<\/a> and 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 Dennis 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 star forward Auston Matthews left Tuesday\u2019s loss to the Boston Bruins with a lower-body injury…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[712,81998,96269,49,48,448,126966,82,74650],"class_list":["post-278319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-apple-news","tag-auston-matthews-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8479318","tag-boston-bruins-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-6","tag-ca","tag-canada","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\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}