Auston Matthews reveals his plans for a return to the ice.

The Toronto Maple Leafs got good news this morning when injured captain Auston Matthews returned to the ice for the first time since November 9th, and now that Matthews has spoken to the media I have even more good news to share.

Matthews recently spent several days in the country of Germany as part of his recovery from injury and the Leafs star forward, who is usually very private about his health and medical care, shared thoughts on why he made the decision to do so.

"(The injury) flared up in pre-season, felt better and started getting worse. I just felt it was time to take a step back, re-evaluate," admitted Matthews on Saturday. "It hasn't necessarily gotten worse, but wasn't getting better. I wanted to be proactive."

In a previous article I shared a video of Matthews returning to the ice for the first time today but, although he was on the ice, Matthews was not a full participant in today's practice. Despite the fact that he would leave the ice just prior to practice officially getting underway for his teammates, Matthews expressed that he felt positive about the limited time he did spend on the ice today.

Additionally, the Maple Leafs captain shared some insight on when we might expect him back. In my previous article I speculated that Sunday's game against the Utah Hockey Club would be too soon to expect a return, with Matthews effectively confirming as much and tentatively setting a return date for Wednesday's game against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

"Today was a good day, said Matthews. "Wednesday (in Florida) is a possibility."

Matthews has been out of action for the majority of the month of November, last playing on November 3rd in a game against the Minnesota Wild, but the Maple Leafs have performed well with him out of the lineup. The team has posted a record of 6 wins and just a single loss since Matthews' absence, overtaking the Florida Panthers for first place in the National Hockey League's Atlantic Division in the process.