Dave Litman
The status of Auston Matthews is in the hands of the doctors. The status of Radko Gudas after his glaringly dirty knee-on-knee hit on the Toronto Maple Leafs captain is in the hands of the NHL’s Department of Player Safety. But what isn’t up in the air is the response—or rather, the complete lack of it—that Matthews’ teammates had to seeing their best player laid out on the ice in pain.
On a night when we saw Connor McDavid drop the gloves after watching a questionable hit on his teammate, not one of the Leafs on the ice at the time of the brutal Gudas take-down of their captain did a thing. And the reaction around the hockey world is one of disbelief.
It was just shocking to watch that… It was impossible not to notice. There were players on the ice who noticed the hit and didn’t do anything about it. It sure looks like this year has broken the spirit of that hockey team. ——Elliotte Friedman, 32 Thoughts
Disheartening for the group. That’s gotta be disheartening for a lot of the players. ‘What if that was me?… Who is gonna step up for me?’ ——Former NHLer Cameron Guance, TSN Analyst
You watch your captain get demolished on home ice by one of the most notorious players in Radko Gudas, and you do nothing… It said so much about that team in that moment. No bigger indictment than their behaviour on the ice not defending their captain. It said a lot about the sad state of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The lack of care, the lack of compete… ——Frank Seravalli, Frankly Hockey
There should have been an immediate response by Matthews’ Leafs teammates
Whether it’s Pee-wee hockey or, in this case, the best players on the planet, there’s always that undercurrent of accountability and doing what’s right. It’s part of your DNA. It’s instinctual. And I think that’s what was most jarring about it. Regardless if you saw the incident or not… you can see your captain down on all fours, grabbing his knee, lying there in pain. In and of itself, there should’ve been an immediate response. And not from just one guy, but all four guys on the ice. ——Darren Dreger, TSN First Up
A quick look down the QEW highway should give the Leafs players an idea of how it’s done. It was just a few days ago that the first-place Buffalo Sabres showed exactly what a real ‘team’ does when they watch their captain get taken down by a vicious hit.
After the game, head coach Craig Berube certainly sounded disappointed that his team didn’t step up for Matthews.
“We should’ve had four guys in there doing something about it,” Berube said. “It didn’t happen then, but I thought they responded in the third.”
And granted, the Leafs did come back from a 3-2 deficit to score two goals on the five-minute power play. They added a gutsy third period. Even fresh-faced 20-year-old rookie Easton Cowan dropped the gloves and went at it with the Ducks’ Jackson LaCombe after he laid a huge hit on Nick Robertson. Too little, too late, most would say.
Sure, they got the 6-4 win to snap an eight-game losing streak. But the damage was already done. You can’t unsee what we all saw after that unsavory Gudas hit on Matthews.
The ugly aftermath of the Gudas/Matthews hit is a microcosm of what’s wrong with this Leafs team
We’ll leave the final word, for now, to an absolutely irate Leafs Morning Take co-host, former Leafs player Jay Rosehill. (He was known to drop the gloves on more than one occasion during his career).
If you want a microcosm of what’s wrong with this team and why they have fallen short for a decade straight, it’s right there. Zero response… In order to have success in hockey, you have to have a team-first mentality… It needs to be the foundation of your team.
This team watches their captain writhing on the ice in pain, and NOBODY knows enough, cares enough, has enough heart, has enough pride, to do anything about it. Oh, ‘I didn’t see it.’ Who gives a sh**! Your captain is on the ice grabbing his knee, and the dirtiest player in the league is just getting up from the collision… It’s the default: You go flying in there and ask questions later!
No doubt, there will be a lot of questions—existential ones—asked about this team after that.
