TORONTO - The scuffling Maple Leafs will look to get back on track minus two key pieces.
Toronto head coach Craig Berube announced ahead of Thursday's home game against the Los Angeles Kings that star centre Auston Matthews will be out of the lineup "maybe a week, maybe sooner" with a lower-body injury.
No. 1 goaltender Anthony Stolarz, meanwhile, is out day-to-day with an upper-body issue.
Matthews left Tuesday's 5-4 road loss to the Boston Bruins in the second period. The Leafs captain took a hit from behind from Nikita Zadorov and then went back at the hulking defenceman moments later in what would be his final shift of the night, but Berube said the initial contact wasn't the problem.
Stolarz, meanwhile, exited after the opening 20 minutes. Third-string netminder Dennis Hildeby will start against the Kings.
Toronto recalled goaltender Artur Akhtyamov from the American Hockey League to serve as Thursday's backup, while centre Scott Laughton was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Saturday after he got rocked by Zadorov in the first of two games against Boston.Â
"We played last year without him for a while … next-man-up mentality," Berube said of Matthews. "Guys get a bigger bite here, bigger role. Just need a better team game."
Still viewed as a Stanley Cup contender at the start of the schedule despite the loss of star winger Mitch Marner over the summer, the Leafs sat 8-8-1 heading into Thursday. They were seventh in the Atlantic Division, 15th in the Eastern Conference and 27th in the overall standings after three straight regulation losses.
"Everybody needs to be more consistent and needs to be better," said Leafs centre John Tavares, who skated on a line with William Nylander and Matthew Knies on Thursday morning. "Just our overall team game, the way we checked and we defend."
The 28-year-old Matthews, who has 14 points in 2025-26, scored a career-high 69 times in 2023-24, but was limited to 33 goals in 67 games last season as he dealt with a persistent upper-body injury.
Stolarz was excellent in going 21-8-3 with a .926 save percentage and 2.14 goals-against average across his first campaign with Toronto, splitting the crease with Joseph Woll for most of 2024-25.
His numbers, however, sit well below that standard so far this season.
Stolarz, who signed a contract extension with an average annual value US$3.75 million through 2029-30 in training camp, had some decent performances early, but owns a 6-5-1 record, .884 save percentage and 3.51 GAA.
"I would be more worried if we weren't scoring goals," Nylander said of the team's overall play. "That's harder, I think, to do. Not letting in goals has been hard for us this year. That's something that you can change and adjust and do better."
The 31-year-old Stolarz missed time last season with a knee injury and was pressed into service a lot more than organization would have liked the first month of the current schedule due to Woll being away from the team for a "personal family matter." The 27-year-old returned to the fold last week, but is currently on an AHL conditioning stint.
The Leafs have been a shell of themselves defensively compared to last season — Toronto is allowing an NHL-worst 3.82 goals per game compared to the 2.79 surrendered in 2024-25 — but Stolarz also hasn't been close to his best on many nights.
And since calling out his teammates following a 4-3 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken on Oct. 18, he's gone 4-3-0 with an .876 save percentage and a 4.05 GAA.
"It's tough stretch right now," Berube said of his group. "Nobody's happy about it, obviously, but I didn't feel there's frustration (Thursday). I felt like we're in the right mode to fix it.Â
"My job's to straighten them (out) and try to get them getting going in the right direction. We've got to stay positive at this point, and we've got to work our way out of it."
This report by ºÃÉ«tvwas first published Nov. 13, 2025.
