Matthews ‘feeling healthy’ for Maple Leafs

Matthews said he was asymptomatic but unable to skate after the positive test.

“It didn’t really hinder my training,” he said. “I was able to do stuff at home. Obviously, I wasn’t able to leave or skate or anything. That’s probably the one area that took a hit for me was that I had been skating beforehand and having to take two or three weeks off the ice. That kind of catches up to you.

“For the most part felt pretty normal for the two weeks but obviously did my quarantine and feeling healthy now, so it’s all good.”

Matthews, who said he couldn’t pinpoint where he may have contracted the virus, admitted this camp will be different for him.

“Obviously not as much time for certainly guys like myself, you know a couple of weeks of not being able to do much,” Matthews said. “Kind of out of the norm of a typical training camp where you are kind of going in there feeling good. So it’s going to be a little bit different but obviously all these teams, everybody’s kind of going through similar stuff, so we’re going to have to adjust as we go and try be in good as shape as possible come the end of the month.”

Matthews scored an NHL career-high 47 goals this season, one behind co-leaders Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins in the race for the Maurice Richard Trophy. He was ninth in the scoring race with an NHL career-high 80 points (47 goals, 33 assists) in 70 games.

The No. 1 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft has scored 285 points (158 goals, 127 assists) in 282 regular-season games, and 13 points (10 goals, three assists) in 20 Stanley Cup Playoff games. He set a modern-day NHL record by scoring four goals in his NHL debut against the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 12, 2016 and won the Calder Trophy voted as the top rookie in 2016-17 after scoring 40 goals.

Matthews has scored at least 34 goals in each of his four NHL seasons.

The Maple Leafs (36-25-9, .579 points percentage) are the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference. They will play the No. 9 seed, the Columbus Blue Jackets (33-22-15, .579), in one of eight best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifier series beginning Aug. 2 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. The winner will advance to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the loser will have a 12.5 percent chance, equal to the other seven teams eliminated in the Qualifiers, at the No. 1 pick in the Second Phase of the NHL Draft Lottery, which will be held Aug. 10. The 2020 NHL Draft is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 9 and 10.

“I think the NHL and everybody have tried their best with the information they have to make it as safe an environment as possible for the players and everybody working there to allow us to compete in this tournament,” Matthews said.

Toronto hasn’t won a playoff series since 2004 and has been eliminated in the first round in each of the past three seasons, including in seven games by the Boston Bruins in each of the past two.