{"id":242385,"date":"2026-03-29T18:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T18:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/242385\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T18:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T18:40:09","slug":"maple-leafs-send-strong-messages-before-ducks-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/242385\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs Send Strong Messages Before Ducks Rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> are heading into Monday\u2019s matchup against the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> with little left to play for in the standings but a lot to prove on the ice.<\/p>\n

Inside the Leafs locker room, it sounds like most players are treating the Ducks game differently, with emotions running high because of what happened earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Ducks and Maple Leafs previously met on Mar. 12 in a game in which veteran Anaheim defenseman Radko Gudas delivered a knee-on-knee hit that resulted in season-ending surgery<\/a> for Toronto captain Auston Matthews.<\/p>\n

The play led to a five-game suspension for Gudas and drew criticism<\/a> around the league while also raising questions<\/a> about Toronto\u2019s response to Gudas’ hit in the moment.<\/p>\n

\"Anaheim<\/p>\n

Anaheim Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas (7) after injuring Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews (34).John E&period; Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(John E&period; Sokolowski-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

With the rematch set for Monday\u2014even though there is some uncertainty<\/a> surrounding Gudas’ availability following his recent injury\u2014multiple Maple Leafs players made it clear they can’t wait for puck-drop in a few hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never want to see anyone go down like that, especially the captain,\u201d Max Domi said<\/a> at the time of the first game. \u201cCertainly not happy about it, and we play \u2019em in a couple weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs are coming off a 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues, and some players again pointed<\/a> to Monday\u2019s game as an opportunity to respond to Gudas’ actions on the ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it’s going to be a mean\u2014a game that means a lot for our side, so, yeah, we\u2019ll be fired up,\u201d William Nylander said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope (we’ll be) very fired up,\u201d Jake McCabe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna be ready to come,\u201d Quillan said. \u201cWe know what happened last game, so we got something to prove next game, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game between Toronto and Anaheim is set for 10 p.m. ET with the 41-28-4 Ducks hosting the 31-30-13 Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n

Related: Ducks’ Radko Gudas Sends Clear Message Before Maple Leafs Rematch<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Craig Berube Calls Out Maple Leafs After Blues Defeat<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Mar 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the NHL<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs are heading into Monday\u2019s matchup against the Anaheim Ducks with little left to play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,85311,108803,62464,5429,21161,2992,90591],"class_list":{"0":"post-242385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-ducks","10":"tag-anaheim-headlines","11":"tag-anaheim-news","12":"tag-auston-matthews","13":"tag-jake-mccabe","14":"tag-max-domi","15":"tag-radko-gudas","16":"tag-st-louis-blues","17":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","18":"tag-william-nylander"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242385","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=242385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}