Toronto Maple Leafs Announce Auston Matthews' Official Game Status for Back-to-Back

The rollercoaster season for Auston Matthews continues as the forward is going through his second extended absence of the year. He missed nearly a month earlier in the year, and though he returned; he looked a step or two behind still.

With so much speculation and questions surrounding how long the Leafs captain will be out for, or if the team should think about shutting him down long term, there are so many unanswered questions.

Head coach Craig Berube has at least given some timeframe as to Matthews' return and unfortunately for fans, it won't be the next couple of games.

Toronto is going to be without Matthews for their back-to-back games against Detroit and Washington, with his status up in the air for their game versus the New York Islanders on New Year's Eve.

Though he's tried to make a valiant effort to return for the team, it was clear Matthews was still hurt and not at 100%. It would be the Maple Leafs' best interest to rest him as long as possible and make sure he's healthy this time around.

11 goals and 12 assists are very unbecoming stats for the captain, and Toronto is good enough to win without him, as history as shown. This time, they don't have the luxury of being able to rest with a few days in between so it's been a rougher go for the squad.

They'll be in tough against Washington on Saturday and heading into Detroit to face a hungry team desperate to impress their new head coach. The team would love to have him back for the New Year's Eve tilt with New York, but might best rest him until January 4 versus Boston.

January offers no consolation for the Maple Leafs, with 13 games on the slate and while they have no back-to-back games, they do play several games with only one day of rest in between.

The Maple Leafs need to get things together with the holiday break over. Making a statement in a back-to-back without Matthews would be a good start, because as of now; it's impossible to tell when or if he'll be back this season.