Terrible injury news announced for Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs

Earlier this season, during November, Auston Matthews missed an extended amount of time with an upper-body injury. Once he returned, Leafs fans hoped this would be the end of his injury struggles this year but that does not seem to be the case.

Today, it was just announced that Matthews will miss tonight's game versus the New York Islanders.

To make things worse for the Leafs, Matthews is also ruled as questionable for their last game before Christmas on the 23rd.

However, it seems like some rest and recovery is what will be best for Matthews as analysts recently raised concerns about his health in a recent Leafs game. Looking less than 100%, the Leafs must have decided it was best for Matthews to recover to ensure he is going to be at his best when it matters most, the playoffs.

This year has been a relatively down year for Matthews, scoring just 11 goals and 23 points through 24 games. For 99% of the players in the NHL, these numbers would be career bests but for Matthews, it is a visible step back as he potted 69 goals and 107 points in 81 games.

To go from nearly scoring 70 goals to scoring at 37-goal pace certainly shows that the Leafs captain has been battling injuries this year. Despite playing up to nine fewer games compared to his teammates, Matthews still sits fourth in Leafs scoring behind only the other members of the core four, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and former captain John Tavares.

We will now wait and see if a break to recover over the holidays is what Matthews needs and if once he returns he can go back to dominating and showing that he is still one of the top-three best players in hockey.