{"id":217659,"date":"2026-03-13T05:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T05:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/217659\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T05:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T05:27:16","slug":"maple-leafs-star-auston-matthews-leaves-after-knee-on-knee-hit-from-ducks-radko-gudas-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/217659\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs Star Auston Matthews Leaves After Knee-On-Knee Hit From Ducks&#8217; Radko Gudas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews left Thursday night against Anaheim after a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BR_OpenIce\/status\/2032253546251329567?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">knee-on-knee hit<\/a> from Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas that drew a major penalty and game misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDirty play,\u201d said Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube, who didn\u2019t have an update on his star center. \u201cLeague\u2019s going to obviously look at it and see what the suspension will be or whatever happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trying to make a move around Gudas in the slot in the second period of <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/maple-leafs-ducks-score-4d167c654ddc08ba76a340199485fdf7?utm_source=copy&amp;utm_medium=share\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toronto\u2019s 6-4 victory<\/a>, Matthews stook a direct blow to his left leg and crashed to the ice. The U.S. Olympic captain stayed down before being helped to the locker room.<\/p>\n<p>Gudas is the bruising Czech defender who ended Canadian captain Sidney Crosby\u2019s Olympics in the quarterfinals with a hit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s done a few of those before in his career,\u201d Toronto winger Matthew Knies said.<\/p>\n<p>Gudas was asked following Anaheim\u2019s morning skate about trying to contain Matthews.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe go to be on top of him,\u201d Gudas said. \u201cWe got to make sure that he doesn\u2019t get space in the middle of the ice \u2026 make his night\u2019s not enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ducks coach Joel Quenneville defended his player.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no premeditation,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cReflexes did it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Matthews snapped a 12-game goal drought earlier in the period on a power play. He has 27 goals and 26 assists in 60 games this season.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ap.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Associated Press<\/a>. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p>Photos You Should See \u2013 March 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773379636_23_march-5-pyss-z01.jpg\" alt=\"TOPSHOT - Children play around an unexploded missile that landed in an open field on the outskirts of Qamishli, eastern Syria, on March 5, 2026. Gulf countries have been targeted by repeated waves of Iranian drone and missile attacks in retaliation for the massive US-Israeli air campaign. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN \/ AFP via Getty Images)\" class=\"Image__PictureImage-sc-412cjc-1 bBgODV Image-sc-412cjc-2 SlideshowEmbed__Picture-fkpjfn-0 kQDDcT bUlaJL\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews left Thursday night against Anaheim after a knee-on-knee hit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,5167,92239,127,12447],"class_list":["post-217659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-associated-press","tag-collections-sports","tag-sports","tag-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}