Auston Matthews absent at practice ahead of game 5 against the Bruins

The Toronto Maple Leafs' superstar Auston Matthews was absent at the team practice ahead of game 5 against the Boston Bruins.

The Leafs will face elimination tomorrow, and as the players stepped on the ice for a pratice session, there was one notable absent: Auston Matthews.

Matthews has been dealing with an illness that prevented him from practicing last week, and forced him to miss the last period of game 4.

Jonas Siegel shared the news on X:






As the power play unit did reps, Sheldon Keefe was forced to mix things up. We saw Max Domi joining Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares, and Morgan Rielly on the first unit, without Matthews on the ice.

Still from Siegel:




Head coach Sheldon Keefe should make an update about Matthews before the puck drops in game 5, tomorrow.

Without him, the Leafs chances of beating the Bruins would take a major hit. If that happens, Leafs players will have to do something we haven't seen in the playoffs yet: pushing their performances to the next level.