Auston Matthews absent from practice as Maple Leafs prepare for must-win Game 5

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What could be the Maple Leafs’ last practice of the season didn’t feature their best player. 

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Auston Matthews, who continues to battle an illness, did not participate as the Leafs went through their on-ice work at the Ford Performance Centre on Monday morning. 

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Matthews’ status for Game 5 on Tuesday in Boston against the Bruins is to be determined, with an update possibly coming from coach Sheldon Keefe after practice.

Down 3-1 in the best-of-seven series, the Leafs’ chances of extending the series with a win in Game 5, obviously, would take a hit with Matthews out. And that’s taking into account that if the 26-year-old centre does play, we know it won’t be at 100%.

Matthews was pulled out of Game 4 after the second period by team doctors, and previously last week, missed a practice and a morning skate because of the illness. 

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Facing elimination, Keefe doesn’t have many options as far as moving players in and out of the lineup, but we did see some new looks on the forward lines at practice.

With Matthews absent, Max Domi centred a line with Tyler Bertuzzi and Mitch Marner on the wings. 

The second line had captain John Tavares between Matthew Knies and William Nylander, and the third featured Pontus Holmberg centring Nick Robertson and Calle Jarnkrok. 

On the fourth line, David Kampf centred Connor Dewar and Ryan Reaves.

Getting Nylander, set to play in his second game of the series, off the third line is key. It hasn’t worked offensively with Holmberg as his centre and there is no reason to believe it would in Game 5.

On the blue line, Timothy Liljegren was back in the top six after he was scratched for Game 4, paired again with Joel Edmundson, and TJ Brodie was returned to the fourth pairing with Mark Giordano.

The top power-play unit featured Marner, Tavares, Nylander, Domi and Rielly. The second unit had Bertuzzi, Robertson, Jarnkrok, Liljegren and Jake McCabe.

In Boston, meanwhile, it was reported that Bruins captain Brad Marchand did not take part in practice.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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