Elliotte Friedman Divulges on Auston Matthews' Plans For The 4 Nations Face-Off
NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman recently spoke about Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews and his plans for the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off in February.
Auston Matthews has been dealing with an upper-body injury all season long and many Maple Leafs fans are starting to worry about his status as we head towards the playoffs.
Elliotte Friedman on Auston Matthews' 4 Nations Face-Off hopes
Something that has really worried fans is whether or not the Leafs captain will be playing at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
The tournament is set to go down in February which is two months before the post-season, and as you can imagine, Matthews was selected for Team USA.
With no return date in sight, there has been a ton of debate surrounding whether or not it is even worth it for Matthews to participate in the tournament.
During the most recent episode of 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman spoke about the captain's decision and whether or not the Maple Leafs need to get involved.
Essentially, Friedman believes it is too early for the Maple Leafs to tell their player that he can't participate.
However, the NHL insider did note that it is likely Matthews returns to the Leafs lineup soon so that he can given the team a trial run of sorts before the tournament.
I kinda look at it this way, first of all I still think it's too early to talk about the 4-Nations, it's 5 weeks away, but the one thing I do think is that I kind of wonder if he's looking at it like you can't keep stopping and starting, especially with this tournament getting closer in your windshield.
I just think that there's probably a sense that you can't keep stopping and then starting this close to it. So I wonder if it's kind of like we're going to take one more big shot here and see what happens so we better make sure we're really ready to go before he returns, it's kind of what I'm wondering."
Friedman makes a good point, which is that the team is not in a position to tell Matthews what he can and cannot do.
The decision is in the captain's hands. All he can do is simply act based on a recommendation from the team.
Hopefully, he makes the right choice and does not jeopardize his season.
