"The kid wants to play hockey."
Auston Matthews missed his very first game as a Leaf on Wednesday night, ending his consecutive regular season start streak at 98 games. With Matthews being put on the shelf, and listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury, some have begun to wonder if the Leafs should just consider resting the young star to ensure that he comes back 100%.
In fact, some have gone as far to say that the Leafs should consider resting Matthews regularly throughout the season to ensure that he's in top form for the playoffs -- in the case that the team makes it there. Which would be similar to the school of thought in the NBA, where starters on contending teams are rested regularly throughout the season.
Speaking on TSN Radio in the morning, James Duthie explained that he doesn't believe that NHL teams will ever considering doing that. Neither do we. But, what about sports science's role in the game of hockey in regards to injury prevention? When Leafs head coach Mike Babcock was asked about it, he kept it short and simple, which is par for the course, stating that "there's sports science and then there's Saskatchewan science and sometimes I like Saskatchewan science."
Translation...Babcock is probably not going to be pulling a Greg Popovich anytime soon.
