Despite showing a lot of hints and progress in his recovery, even joining the team’s full practice earlier in the week, Auston Matthews has missed his ninth game in a row after sitting out their 5-1 loss to the Florida Panthers. Now his MVP odds are starting to be affected at a bigger level as well with the Maple Leafs losing games as well.

It has been quite a turbulent stretch for the Toronto Maple Leafs with Matthews sitting out games. They are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, dropping their recent game against the Florida Panthers yesterday. So far, the Maple Leafs are still in the 4th seed in the Eastern Conference, just a few wins behind the likes of the Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, and the Washington Capitals.

So far, there has been a lot of talk as to how Matthews’ games have been really missed well for the team. He has not played a game since November 3rd and has been watching from the sidelines while the rest of the squad had to battle all the way to the finish with their captain out of the picture.

Matthews Stock Plummeting as of Late

From being a favorite to open up November, Auston Matthews’s MVP odds are now gone in the top 10 while Connor Hellebuyck replaces his slot in the list. So far, there have been uite a lot of talks as to how the Maple Leafs star is sorely missed by the team – but not pressured to return at the same time.

“He had a real good practice, but he has been off a while,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said of Matthews’ status. “Getting into a full practice was very important. But both him and I, as well as the organization, feel he needs a little bit more to be ready to go. It’s not a healing thing, it’s stamina, getting up to speed and making sure he is ready. We want to make sure he is comfortable and ready to go.’’

Before he went out with an upper-body injury, Matthews had 11 points coming off five goals and six assists in 13 games for the Maple Leafs. Still, they are still on a good position in their games so far with a good look on the top four spot, and even having a promising position in the Atlantic Division so far.

All-in-all, Toronto has a 42-20-2 record without Matthews ever since he entered the league in 2016-17. They have performed well for him historically so far, which says a lot about their chances of winning while he takes his time to recover.

Feeling Good So Far

Matthews claims that he is not rushing to return to the game and has a lot of faith in his teammates to hold the fort. It is also expected that he will go for another team practice session before returning to game action – which is predicted to be against the Tampa Bay Lightning this weekend.

“I felt pretty good, so we will just take it step by step,” Matthews said after practice. “I don’t know, we’ll see. I’ll get with the training staff and chat some more. The individual skates are much different than a team practice, so this being the first actual team practice I skated in, I felt really good.”

There are no specifics on Matthews’ upper-body injury. So far, the only positive side for this is that he is not out for the whole season, which could have spelled a bigger doom for their season.