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The Toronto Maple Leafs are not only losing games, they are losing players at a rapid rate as they prepare to host the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
The Maple Leafs finished their 5-3 road loss to Boston Bruins on Tuesday without captain Auston Matthews (lower-body injury) and No. 1 goaltender Anthony Stolarz (upper-body).<\/p>\n
Matthews left the game in the second period after taking a hit in the back from Boston defenseman Nikita Zadorov.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s a penalty, personally, but I’m not the referee,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “I don’t like the hit. He’s in a vulnerable position.”<\/p>\n
Matthews returned a hit on Zadorov before finishing his shift.<\/p>\n
No matter who is available, the Maple Leafs appear to have a difficult task against the Kings, who are coming off a 5-1 road win over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday and have won two in a row, as well as three of their past four.<\/p>\n
As for Matthews, he was to be assessed on Wednesday, a day off for the team.<\/p>\n
After the game, Berube was uncertain about the severity of the injury.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know exactly,” he said. “I can’t give you a timeline or how serious it is right now. I’m not sure when he hurt it to be honest with you.”<\/p>\n
Stolarz was replaced by Dennis Hildeby after the first period but Berube did not seem concerned.<\/p>\n
“I don’t believe that’s serious,” Berube said. “I think he’ll be fine.”<\/p>\n
Goaltender Joseph Woll, who missed the early weeks of the season for a personal issue, is with the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League and is close to returning to the Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n
Toronto already is without top defenseman Chris Tanev and forward Scott Laughton, who both have upper-body injuries.<\/p>\n
The Maple Leafs have lost three straight after winning three in a row. They have struggled at times despite playing 12 of their first 16 games at home.<\/p>\n
“It’s adversity, for sure,” said forward Max Domi, who had an assist for Toronto in Boston. “Every guy in here is champing at the bit. Everyone wants an opportunity and here’s our opportunity. Everyone’s got to step up. Next-man-up mentality.”<\/p>\n
The Kings are playing well on the road, having won the first two matchups of their current six-game trip.<\/p>\n
They are 7-1-2 away from home and will be pursuing a fifth consecutive road victory on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“It’s weird — like, two years ago, same thing,” said Quinton Byfield, who had a goal and an assist on Tuesday. “We were hot on the road, last year we were hot at home, now we’re hot on the road, I guess, again. I can’t say anything about that, it’s kind of how it goes sometimes, so obviously you want to make it both home and away and get some wins at home, but we’ve got to finish the road trip strong.”<\/p>\n
The Kings trailed after the first period at Montreal, then erupted for three goals in a span of 4:05 early in the second.<\/p>\n
“We felt pretty good about the period, so to come out one down was disappointing,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “But I thought we did a good job not to overreact and just understand that the way we’re playing, just come out and do it again.”<\/p>\n
Artemi Panarin is beginning to shake off his early season struggles.<\/p>\n
With a newly shaven head, the star Russian wing has posted nine points \u2014 three goals and six assists \u2014 in the last four games after assisting on four goals in the Rangers\u2019 7-3 win over the Lightning on Wednesday night at Benchmark International Arena.<\/p>\n
Just like that, Panarin leads the Rangers in points (16).<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when he\u2019s at his best, the puck follows him around,\u201d head coach Mike Sullivan said Wednesday after an optional morning skate. \u201cHe finds a way to have it a lot. I thought the last game he had it a lot. There are probably a number of reasons for that, but that\u2019s what the game looks like when he\u2019s at his best. I think he\u2019s a threat off the rush. I think he has an uncanny ability to delay or slow the play down and allow the rush to go by him and then create opportunity. I think he\u2019s getting better as far as supporting the play in the offensive zone. We\u2019re trying to encourage him to be a little bit closer to his linemates, and I think he\u2019s doing a better job there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought his line had more offensive zone time. I think that line has the ability to create offense in a number of different ways. They\u2019re going to be dangerous off the rush because they\u2019re talented, but they can build that grind game and they can be dangerous there also, because they\u2019re talented. But that takes collective effort there, and that\u2019s where we\u2019re trying to help them. But I thought the line in general had a strong game last game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Artemi Panarin battles Jake Guentzel for the puck during the Rangers\u2019 7-3 blowout road win over the Lightning on Nov. 12, 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n Despite looking rather disconnected through the first few weeks of the season, Panarin has collected four multipoint games through the first 18 contests \u2014 including one three-point game and two four-point efforts.<\/p>\n The Rangers have a record ofare 4-0 every time Panarin has collected multiple points in a game this season.<\/p>\n \u201cMy confidence [is] OK now,\u201d Panarin said after his two-goal effort on Monday against the Predators. \u201cBetter than before.\u201d<\/p>\n Igor Shesterkin saved 33 of the 36 shots he faced in his sixth win of the season.<\/p>\n In a move he said was largely due to matchups, Sullivan shifted Will Cuylle up to play with J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad toward the end of the second period and through the third.<\/p>\n \u201c[Lightning coach Jon Cooper] wanted that match with [Nikita] Kucherov, [Jake] Guentzel and Brayden Point,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWe just felt like that\u2019s a tall task for a young kid [Gabe Perreault] that hasn\u2019t played a whole lot in the league. If that was going to be the match, we thought it made more sense to have a guy like Will play with J.T. and Mika in that circumstance. Some of it was just based on the feel of the game, but some of it was just from a matchup strategy standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rangers signed Spencer Martin to a two-year contract Wednesday before putting the 30-year-old goalie on waivers. If he clears, Martin will be assigned to Hartford.<\/p>\n Appearing in nine games for the Hurricanes last season, Martin posted a 3-4-1 record with an .846 save percentage and a 3.89 goals-against average.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Toronto Maple Leafs are not only losing games, they are losing players at a rapid rate as they prepare to host the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night. The Maple Leafs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t