{"id":243901,"date":"2026-03-30T21:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T21:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/243901\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T21:04:14","slug":"i-have-to-play-ducks-radko-gudas-ready-for-maple-leafs-revenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/243901\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I have to play’: Ducks’ Radko Gudas ready for Maple Leafs revenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Anaheim Ducks<\/a> captain is not 100 per cent healthy, but he was adamant about accepting his penance for ending Auston Matthews<\/a>\u2019 season with a greasy knee-on-knee hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cStand behind my own mistakes,\u201d Gudas said at Honda Center Monday morning. \u201cI want to address it myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one of those games where I have to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The code says, don\u2019t stick out your knee and send an opponent to the operating table.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The code also says, if you commit a dirty hit, you better be prepared to drop the gloves.<\/p>\n

So even though Gudas suffered an undisclosed lower-body injury Thursday in Calgary, was spotted wearing a walking boot post-game, and missed Saturday\u2019s critical divisional match in Edmonton, there he was, on the ice Monday in Anaheim.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, he knows,\u201d Leafs coach Craig Berube said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s got character. We know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A full participant at morning skate, Gudas spoke one-on-one at length with Joel Quenneville, informed his coach he was good to go, then was standing at his stall waiting to answer questions before answering the bell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be an intense game. One of the reasons why I wanted to play was to address things,\u201d said Gudas, who is preparing to be challenged to a fight. Preferably shortly after puck drop (10 p.m. ET, Sportsnet Ontario, Sportsnet+).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it\u2019s addressed early in the game, everybody can \u2026 I don\u2019t want to say relax a little bit, but everybody knows that the thing is going to be addressed. So, I would assume something like that\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gudas, a repeat offender, was suspended five games for targeting Matthews. He reached out to the superstar afterward to express his remorse, saying he felt \u201cterrible<\/a>\u201d for the point of contact and the injury.<\/p>\n

In real time, the Maple Leafs did not go after Gudas for the hit, as you may have heard, and\u00a0The Non-Response<\/a>\u00a0has become a talking point not only within the Leafs organization but leaguewide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI got no comment on this,\u201d Gudas said. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard for them to react. They don’t know what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Equally debated has been the length of Gudas\u2019s ban, deemed too light by many.<\/p>\n

George Parros, chief of the NHL\u2019s department of player safety, has stood by the punishment. <\/p>\n

Parros flew from St. Louis to Anaheim and plans to be in attendance for the game. The league has spoken with both clubs ahead of what should be a fiery affair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t want the game to get out of hand. I don\u2019t blame them,\u201d Berube said. \u201cYou don’t want anything stupid happening, suspensions and things like that. Like, that doesn\u2019t solve anything. Just go out and play the game with a lot of emotion, energy. Be physical and be hard on their skilled players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to predict, but you anticipate a physical game, and both teams are probably going to be coming out playing hard,\u201d Quenneville added. \u201cLet\u2019s be smart about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Embarrassed they didn\u2019t stick up for their captain 18 days ago, the Maple Leafs are\u00a0vowing an impassioned performance<\/a>\u00a0Monday, on a night they could be officially eliminated from playoff contention.<\/p>\n

Morgan Rielly blamed himself for turning the other cheek, then\u00a0picked a fight<\/a>\u00a0with the Islanders\u2019 Kyle MacLean a few nights later. The longest-serving Leaf took the incident to heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yeah, I did too, for sure. It\u2019s hard situation. Happens fast,\u201d partner Brandon Carlo told\u00a0Sportsnet.ca\u00a0on Monday. \u201cInitially, I didn\u2019t really understand what was going on, and then afterwards, once you see the hit, you just feel terrible with the way that the situation all played out. But you learn from that mistake.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you see your captain on the ice, you need to go in there and make it known that that\u2019s not OK. So, definitely tough. I thought about it a lot, for sure. Hate that that happened and didn\u2019t react accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlo added that if there is an opportunity to get a lick on Gudas, the Maple Leafs must do so \u2014 within the rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a game that means a lot for our side, so, yeah, we\u2019ll be fired up,\u201d said William Nylander, who was on the ice when Gudas took out Matthews.<\/p>\n

Gudas is no stranger to animosity or opponents wanting payback.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been around,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cHe knows how games like this can be played out, and his experience can help him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe pushes the envelope, and sometimes there\u2019s some other things you got to answer to. And I think he knows that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"3232 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n

Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n

Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n

No question a Leaf will challenge Gudas, but who will it be?<\/p>\n

Max Domi?\u00a0The\u00a0regretful\u00a0Rielly? Dakota Joshua, who squared off with the monstrous\u00a0Nikita Zadorov last week?\u00a0Or the recently recalled Michael Pezzetta?<\/p>\n

Someone\u00a0will\u00a0respond, even if it feels late.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese games are very hard fought. I think everybody\u2019s going to be ready to battle,\u201d Gudas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to have the most playoff-like feel as we can get, close to it. So, it’s going to be a good test for us. I know they\u2019re going to be coming, so we have to be ready for them tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Anaheim Ducks captain is not 100 per cent healthy, but he was adamant about accepting his penance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-243901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243901","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=243901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}