The Maple Leafs and Anaheim Ducks skated at the Honda Center on Monday.
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Radko Gudas left last Thursday’s game in Calgary in a walking boot after sustaining a lower-body injury against the Flames. The 35-year-old defenceman then missed Saturday’s crucial showdown in Edmonton. But Gudas will be in the lineup on Monday night against the Maple Leafs.
It is the first meeting between the teams since Gudas ended the season of Leafs captain Auston Matthews with a knee-on-knee hit.
“Stand behind my own mistakes,” Gudas explained when asked about his desire to play despite not being in top physical condition. “I want to address it myself, so that’s one of the reasons, 100 per cent. That’s one of those games where I have to play.”
The Ducks captain is expecting fireworks early on.
“When it’s addressed early in the game everybody can, I don’t want to say relax a little bit, but everybody knows that the thing is going to [be] addressed,” Gudas said. “I would assume something like that’s going to happen again.”
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Gudas reached out to Matthews and expressed regret for what happened. Toronto’s top-line centre sustained a Grade 3 MCL tear, which required surgery.
Gudas was assessed a five-game suspension, which the Leafs made clear they felt was too lenient.
Are the Leafs still angry?
“We lost our best player so (pause) that’s my response,” defenceman Simon Benoit said.
“It’s going to be a game that means a lot for our side so, yeah, we’ll be fired up,” winger William Nylander told reporters after Saturday’s loss in St. Louis.
The other Leafs skaters on the ice when Matthews got hurt (Nylander, Easton Cowan, Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo) did not confront Gudas, which led to a rebuke from coach Craig Berube and criticism across the hockey world.
“We all kind of saw the media after that game, so we know that it’s going to be an emotional game out there,” said Ducks rookie Beckett Sennecke. “We’re a strong, hard team to play against so we’re excited for the challenge.”
Benoit said the initial non-response to Gudas was “a wake-up call.” Toronto is the most penalized team in the league since that game against the Ducks on March 12.
On Monday night, they get another chance to confront Gudas.
“Just play him hard like anyone else,” said winger Dakota Joshua, who leads the Leafs in hits. “If there’s a chance to hit him, I’m sure we’ll make sure we’re physical.”
“Just be hard on him,” Benoit echoed. “But it doesn’t mean I’m going to take my stick and rip his head off. It’s just being hard on him. Those two points are important for them as well so being hard on them, being physical, and grabbing those two points from them will hurt too.”
The Ducks are just three points up on the Oilers in the race for top spot in the Pacific Division.
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George Parros, who is the head of the NHL’s department of player safety, will be in attendance on Monday night.
“They don’t want the game to get out of hand,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “I don’t blame them. I don’t think it’s good for anybody. You don’t want anything stupid happening, suspensions, things like that, that doesn’t solve anything. Just go out and play the game with a lot of emotion, energy, be physical and be hard on their skill players.”
Still, these are the type of games where things can go off the rails quickly.
“It’s hard to predict but you anticipate a physical game,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Both teams are probably going to come out playing hard. That’s what I expect, and let’s be smart about it.”
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Gudas describes his health as “good to play” but didn’t look comfortable at times during the morning skate.
Ducks teammates appreciate his desire to fight his own battle.
“It’s huge,” said winger Cutter Gauthier. “When you’re the leader of a team and you’re willing to do whatever it takes to be in front of the guys and support the guys and step up for your actions it’s obviously great. So, super happy he’s able to get healthy enough to play tonight and we’ll be behind his back and help him through it all.”
Quenneville checked in with Gudas at the end of the skate just to make sure he was good to go.
“He’s been around so he knows how games like this can be played out and the experience can help him,” the coach said. “He wants to play and he’s going to play.”
Gudas is beloved in the Ducks dressing room.
“He’s got the ‘C’ for a reason,” Gauthier noted. “All the things he does on and off the ice to help this group and bond this group, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“He’s the best. He’s the voice that keeps us all together,” said Sennecke. “He looks out for all of us and we look out for him too.”
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During the game between the teams earlier this month, Max Domi received a misconduct for going after Sennecke in the third period.
“Honestly, I don’t really know what happened,” the 20-year-old Ducks rookie recalled with a smile. “He got a little aggressive there in that scrum. It’s an emotional game and he’s an emotional player.”
Domi appeared to have Sennecke in his sights for much of the night.
“It was interesting,” said Sennecke. “I don’t really know why, but he’s a competitive guy and I’m excited to get out there against him today.”
Domi was not available to the media after Monday’s skate.
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Lines at Leafs skate on Monday:
Cowan - Tavares - Nylander
Knies - Groulx - Maccelli
Joshua - Domi - Robertson
Pezzetta - Quillan - Lorentz
Jarnkrok
Rielly - Carlo
McCabe - Stecher
Benoit - Ekman-Larsson
Myers
Stolarz
Woll
