Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews did not play in Sunday's 4-2 win against the New York Islanders due to an undisclosed injury. Head coach Sheldon Keefe called it an "easy' decision to hold the star forward out but added Matthews probably would have played if it was a playoff game.

"It's just not worth him having to play through anything, as minor as it might've been," Keefe said. "We got to be smart with those kind of things. If it was a playoff game, he's probably playing."

Keefe refused to divulge the nature of the injury, citing that it won't matter as Matthews will be over the ailment quickly.

"Given the time of year and the fact it's pretty minor and I think he's going to move past it pretty quickly," he said. "So, we'll just leave it at that."

Matthews, 24, suffered the injury during Saturday's 5-4 overtime victory over the Ottawa Senators and is considered to be day-to-day.

With six games remaining in the regular season, Keefe will need to consider balancing rest vs. readiness as the team prepares for the post season.

"It is a balance," Keefe acknowledged. "The players, as much as sometimes rest is good for them, they don’t like it. They like to just play the games, stay in a rhythm, but we got to be smart about it ... Even tonight on the back-to-back, we had some discussions internally about what to do with the group and we just decided to keep the group rolling along here."

Matthews, a native of  Scottsdale, Ariz.,is currently two goals shy of reaching the 60-goal plateau and is four goals ahead of Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl for the Maurice (Rocket) Richard Trophy lead.

"Auston's got a minor injury," explained Keefe during his pre-game briefing. "At this point here it's going to be day-to-day. It's really out of an abundance of caution. Well give him the day off and re-assess him from there."

Matthews is in the middle of a career season where he has tallied 58 goals and 102 points in 70 games.

Toronto leads the Tampa Bay Lightning by six points in the rce for the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division and will play four games in four different cities during a six-day stretch starting on Tuesday when they host the Philadelphia Flyers.

"This is an important week for us to get through," Keefe said. "We got to balance all those kind of things, but we are still competing here. It's tight, you know, in terms of where our seeding is. We want to maintain that and continue to play well going into the playoffs so that's all the stuff we're discussing. As long as we're confident that the guys are healthy, we think, for the most part, we'll just keep the group rolling."