A couple of days after being called out by Leafs head coach Craig Berube, sophomore winger Matthew Knies responded to the coach’s criticisms in a surprising way.

Matthew Knies simply hasn’t looked the same since he suffered what is believed by many to have been a concussion on November 20th, after taking a high hit from Vegas Golden Knights’ defenseman Zach Whitecloud.

The injury forced the 22-year-old to miss a pair of games before returning at the end of November. Unfortunately, Knies has hit a sophomore slump since returning from injury, scoring just 3 goals and tallying 7 points in 15 games, including just 1 assist in his last 6 games.

Leafs' Matthew Knies hoping to put head injury behind him | Toronto Sun

Following Saturday’s loss to the Washington Capitals, Berube was critical of Knies’ play since his return, saying that he isn’t quite at the level he was before his injury.

Averaging almost half a point-per-game isn’t terrible, but when the Arizona native has just 1 goal in his last 13 games and 2 points since December 14th, you can see where the concern is from the Leafs’ bench boss.

Knies sat down with The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke on Monday and was asked about his play since returning from his concussion and agreed with Berube’s assessment.

“My game has dipped. It’s definitely not as physical as I want it to be,” Knies admitted. “I think I just need to mentally dial in on the little things that I’ve been lacking.”

 

Knies is doing everything he can to get back to the level of play he was at prior to his injury, including sitting down with the Leafs’ coaching staff before practice on Monday to find ways to become more of presence in the offensive zone.

“I just haven’t been as tough to play against. There’s still improvements I can make, but there’s a lot of hockey ahead of me.”

After being what many considered to be the Leafs’ best player against the Boston Bruins in their first-round loss last post-season, Knies came out of the gate continuing his dominance with 12 points in his first 20 games and another 4 points in 3 games after returning from injury.

Since then, however, the former second-round pick has struggled, but is hopeful that all the extra work he is putting in will pay off sooner rather than later.