Marchand injures Knies in brutal loss to the Bruins for Leafs

In case you missed it earlier this evening, the Toronto Maple Leafs dropped a 4-1 decision in Boston to the Boston Bruins.

It was the second consecutive 4-1 loss for the Leafs against the B's and it came at a cost that goes beyond the standings. The Leafs lost forward Matthew Knies to injury after he left the game in the 1st period with an apparent upper body injury.

Knies collided with Bruins captain and NHL uber-pest Brad Marchand and left the game immediately. He did not return to action.

Here's the play in question:

Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe did not have an update on Knies' status, post-game.

Read below for our earlier report on tonight's game, published-pregame.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are taking on the Boston Bruins for the second time in a week's time, and will be looking to avenge Monday's 4-1 loss at Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto when they gather at Boston's TD Garden tonight. 

Right now, there's no hotter goal scoring forward in the NHL than Toronto's Auston Matthews, who is on pace to eclipse the 70 goal mark for the first time in his career and register the highest goal total for a player since Alex Ovechkin scored 65 goals in 2007-08 for the Washington Capitals and Connor McDavid scored 64 goals last year for the Edmonton Oilers. 

And his goal scoring prowess isn't lost on Bruins forward and captain Brad Marchand, who has faced Matthews plenty of times throughout his career. 

In fact, Marchand had a pretty stark comparison for what Matthews is currently achieving, and he took it a step further than the two previous aforementioned players. Marchand is instead comparing the scoring pace of Matthews to none other than Wayne Gretzky himself. 

"Got to be equivalent to what Gretzky did," Marchand said of Matthews. "Definitely equivalent to one of the best goal-scoring seasons ever. Don’t want to see him score against us but it would be pretty cool to see him get that."

While Matthews didn't score against the Bruins on Monday, Marchand knows that you can't keep him off the scoreboard for long. 

"It’s a matter of time with him," Marchand said. "He scores every game or if he doesn’t score one game he’s getting two the next. You’re not going to shut him down, but you just got to try and play tight on him."

With 54 goals in 61 games so far, Matthews is currently on pace to reach 71 goals. Will he add to his total tonight against the Bruins at TD Garden? 

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