The Toronto Maple Leafs have talked a lot about their lack of response to Radko Gudas’ season-ending hit on Auston Matthews earlier this month, and Monday’s game will provide the team their chance for to answer back.
Gudas’ status was in doubt but, after taking part in Monday’s gameday skate, he confirmed he will play as the Anaheim Ducks host the Maple Leafs. He missed Saturday’s loss to the Edmonton Oilers after being injured last week in a win over the Calgary Flames.
“Stand behind my own mistakes. I want to address it myself,” Gudas said of dressing on Monday amid an apparent injury, per Jonas Siegel of The Athletic.
Gudas being absent for the game would have taken a significant amount of the air out of the matchup, which the Maple Leafs quickly turned their focus to after a 5-1 blowout loss to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.
“It’s obviously a game that means a lot for our side, so we’ll be pretty fired up,” forward William Nylander said.
“You can’t go out and do stupid things – suspensions and things like that,” head coach Craig Berube cautioned. “That’s not what it’s all about. But we definitely have to go out and play a physical, hard game against that team.”
Berube said he brought up the team’s lack of response to the Gudas hit, in which the veteran defenceman ran knee-on-knee on Matthews to earn five-game suspension, for more than a week afterwards.
Nylander and veteran defenceman Morgan Rielly were both on the ice when Gudas delivered the hit and expressed disappointment in themselves post-game.
“It’s on me for not responding earlier to Gudas,” Rielly said. “I didn’t understand how bad he got him … but I take full responsibility for not being the first one in there or being in there quicker.”
“Should have probably gone in there,” Nylander added. “But in the situation at the time, I didn’t really understand until, like, 15 seconds later there was more than what I thought it was.
“Yeah, should have jumped in.”
The hit from Gudas left Matthews with a grade 3 MCL tear and quad contusion in his left leg. He underwent knee surgery on March 19 and was given a timeline of 12 weeks for recovery.
Gudas returned from his suspension last week to face the Vancouver Canucks and was injured in his second game back against the Flames.
“I really hate the way it ended up, the point of contact,” Gudas said of the hit prior to his return. “I’m not a fan of that. I never want to injure anybody out there. It’s a hard-fought game. It’s just, yeah, I never want to go out there and hurt anybody. I feel terrible about the outcome. I just committed to the play, and unfortunately that was the point of contact.”
The 35-year-old blueliner noted at the time that he had also spoken to Matthews over the phone to apologize.
“It’s very hard to, really hard, to keep in conversation,” Gudas said. “Just wanted to make sure that [he knew] it was not my intention to hurt anybody.”
Monday’s game means little in the standings for Toronto, who are 13 points of a playoff spot and closing on being mathematically eliminated from contention.
The Ducks sit first in the Pacific Division with a three-point lead over the Oilers with a game in hand.
