Upper-body injury bothers Auston Matthews once again, and the Maple Leafs superstar will miss the next two games.

Matthews's outlook has been up in the air since he re-aggravated an upper-body injury during a 6-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 20. Head coach Craig Berube later revealed that the 27-year-old sharpshooter would be sidelined until after the holidays, leaving optimists hoping for a return as early as Friday.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without captain Auston Matthews for at least the next two games as the star center continues to nurse an upper-body injury, NHL.com reported Friday. Matthews, 27, has missed Toronto's last two games and will sit out Friday's contest at Detroit and Saturday's home showdown against Washington.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Alex Ovechkin could resume his chase of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goal record when the Washington Capitals visit the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, SNE, SNO, SNP, NHLN, MNMT2).

The Capitals’ encouraging performance without Alex Ovechkin proves that they are a good team — and that they will probably reach new heights when he returns.