Craig Berube Shares What Little Information He Can About Leafs Captain Auston Matthews

Early Saturday afternoon, the Leafs announced thst Matthews would be a scratch against the Islanders and was also questionable for Monday's game before the holiday break.

The announcement led to a very shocking and questionable replacement in David Kampf between Matthew Knies and Mitch Marner to begin the game.

Before puck drop, Berube revealed that it was a cross-check during Friday's win over Buffalo that re-aggravated the injury late in the third against the Sabres. Ahead of that same game, however, he also seemed to confirm that Matthews had been battling something since returning to the lineup on November 30th.

Following the Leafs' loss to the Islanders, Berube indicated that Matthews likely won't be playing Monday either.

The Leafs captain and former first-overall pick missed 9 games already in November due to this unknown upper-body injury and is now set to miss his 11th of the season Monday in the hopes of returning following the Christmas break.

At this point, the Leafs should be shutting the Arizona native down until he is 100-percent healthy. Whether it takes a couple of weeks or a couple of months, there is no point in having him play injured when the team is doing just fine without him.