Flanked at the two ends of the Atlantic Division, the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs met for a showdown at TD Garden on Tuesday. After a disappointing finish last season, the Bruins are hungry for redemption and have extended their spectacular win streak to seven. Boston thoroughly overpowered the Leafs to snatch the 5-3 victory, with standout winger David Pastrnak scoring landmark 400th and 401st goals.
The picture was far less enthusiastic in Toronto, grim even. Not only did the team lose, but captain Auston Matthews sustained an injury after being hit by Bruins’ Nikita Zadorov. Not long ago, the defenseman received adequate social media backlash for trying to rough up New York Islanders’ Matthew Schaefer. But this time, Zadorov has decided to come forward with an explanation.
Boston Bruins D-Man Clarifies Stance on Auston Matthews Injury Fiasco
Matthews had his back turned when he was hit along the boards around midway through the second period by Zadorov, and soon after, exited the arena. The Leafs’ captain has sustained a lower-body injury, and to make matters worse, HC Craig Berube is unsure about when he will return. “I don’t know exactly. I can’t give you a timeline or (tell you) how serious it is right now. I’m not sure when he hurt it to be honest with you,” Berube said, according to Jonas Siegel’s X post.
On the other hand, in a post-game media address, Zadorov denied hitting Matthews whatsoever. The blueliner stated that it was simply “normal play”, and he did not make any moves that could be tantamount to hitting somebody. “It was just a normal play. I didn’t really hit him. I hit my right shoulder, 99% of my hits in the NHL are with my right shoulder,” shared Bruins journalist Bridgette Proulx on social media.
Zadorov added that he was not motivated by any desire to compromise Matthews, but instead played as he does against the league’s best players. “There was really no intention to hurt him. I play hard against top players on the other team, that’s my job.”
Zadorov on his hit that may have been what injured Auston Matthews:
“It was just a normal play. I didn’t really hit him. I hit my right shoulder, 99% of my hits in the NHL are with my right shoulder…”
“There was really no intention to hurt him. I play hard against top players… pic.twitter.com/09ZHnwoLkn
— Bridgette Proulx (@bridgetteproulx) November 12, 2025
However, considering everything, the reality remains that Toronto’s already forgettable season has taken a turn for the worse with its captain being sidelined for an unknown period of time. Moreover, the showdown against the Bruins also left Anthony Stolarz with an upper-body injury, although Berube does not believe Stolarz’s injury to be grave.
Forward Max Domi expressed how disheartening it is to watch top-tier players of the team being injured like Matthews was, before adding that the Leafs remained united and put up a brave show after their captain was forced to make a premature exit. “When guys that mean a lot to our team get injured like that, you just got to stick together and stand in there. Like I said, I think we did a good job of that as a whole in the third period.”
There is no way to know if Matthews will be back for the next game or will miss many to come. The Leafs’ brass needs to take a page out of the Ottawa Senators’ book to plan around their captain. After all, the Sens have been doing a spectacular job at winning despite Brady Tkachuk’s absence.
