Auston Matthews is going through some tough times

Auston Matthews wants nothing more but to be able to put on his All-Star jersey, and go out on the ice with all his fellow all-stars in the 'Show Me' state, but #34 has been dealing with a nagging wrist injury that is lingering on the line of rehab vs surgery.

Matthews made the team aware of the injury a few weeks ago, and the two have been doing whatever they can to find ways to mitigate the risk and cure the pain.

The crazy part about all of this, is Matthews has scored the most goals by anyone in the league since December 1st, and has been playing through a tremendous amount of pain in the process.

It's just nagging every time you're stick-handling, shooting, stuff like that. I think when you get in a game situation, obviously there's so much adrenaline and so much stuff kind of running through your mind and everything, you kind of forget about it, I guess. And you can kind of manage it, and play through it.

Matthews is enjoying himself what could turn out to be a career year. He's been healthy enough to play in all 49 games, and is on pace for 57 goals and 95 points.

Just making sure obviously every game that rehab, treatment, stuff like that, just doing everything I can to help it feel as best it can throughout this whole process.

Matthews is participating in all the media related activities in St Louis this all-star weekend, so he doesn't get suspended. With the pace he's on, can't blame him for not wanting to miss any games. His wrist, however, may have other ideas.