Thursday night hurt the Toronto Maple Leafs’ chances in their second-round playoff matchup against the Florida Panthers in more ways than one.
Toronto lost Game 2 at home to fall behind 2-0 in the series. But now they’ve lost rookie forward Matthew Knies for the foreseeable future.
As revealed by coach Sheldon Keefe on a Zoom call with media Friday, Knies has been diagnosed with a concussion after getting tangled up with, and taken down by, Panthers center Sam Bennett in Game 2.
Keefe indicated Knies will miss Game 3 Sunday and Game 4 Wednesday, adding that Knies’ availability for the rest of the series is also “unlikely.”
The collision with Bennett occurred in the first period in Florida’s zone. Knies was slow getting up and heading to the Leafs bench. He attempted to return to the game but was ruled out at the start of the second period. Bennett was not penalized on the play but was fined $5,000 for an incident that occurred later in the game: a cross-check to the neck of Michael Bunting.
The loss of Knies stings for the Leafs despite the fact he has just three NHL regular-season games and seven playoff games to his name. With his size, strength and excellent stick skills, the Leafs’ top forward prospect has looked like he belongs, moving around the top nine so far this postseason.
Knies has a goal and four points in seven games this spring and was on the ice for all three of Toronto’s overtime winners in Round 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
At 5-on-5 so far in the playoffs, he holds the fourth-best expected goal share on the team behind only Bunting, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
“Matt’s proven to improve the depth of our team and (we) believe we’re a better team when he’s in,” Keefe said. “All that said, we were a very good team before he arrived on scene here. We’ll make some adjustments accordingly, but we’ve got full confidence in our group.”
It remains to be seen whether Zach Aston-Reese will draw back into Toronto’s lineup to replace Knies in Game 3 or whether the Leafs will roll with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, as they did successfully in their series-clinching Game 6 win against Tampa.
“We consider it every game,” Keefe said. “We talk about it. It’s a topic in our coaches’ room. We only used it the one game in the Tampa series, but it was a discussion daily. Today is an off day, so it’s a chance for us to look at and focus on other things, but it will certainly be a topic when we go in and get set for Game 3. It’s always on the table for us.”
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