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Auston Matthews exits game with shoulder injury after big hit

(UPDATE: Matthews is expected to miss about a month with the injury.)

Toronto Maple Leafs star center Auston Matthews had to leave Saturday’s home game against the Winnipeg Jets early the second period after he was on the receiving end of a bit hit from Jacob Trouba.

As soon as Matthews was hunt he was hunched over in obvious pain and skated off to the bench.

He exited the game and did not return with what the team is calling a shoulder injury.

After the game Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said that Matthews will not practice on Sunday and will miss Monday’s game against the Calgary Flames.

Matthews is one of the game’s best players and brightest young stars and has been off to an incredible start this season that had driven the Maple Leafs to the 7-3-0 start they took into play on Saturday. Entering the game he was on top of the league with 10 goals and two points behind Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen for the league lead (20).

You can see the play where the injury occurred in the video above.

Matthews missed 20 games due to injury a year ago.

Without Matthews in the game the Leafs scored three consecutive goals in the final 17 minutes of regulation, including two in the final three minutes, to erase what had been a two-goal deficit to take a 3-2 win.

MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule

Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.