I mean we just saw Matthews lead the team to win a round where he was arguably the best player on the ice for both teams last year; but whatever narratives make you happy. you got a hart, rocket and selke level center who has more good series than he does bad and that's the guy people choose to shit on its jokes.
Let's see-->Nathan Mackinnon misses playoffs for three years with his great competitveness. Never gets out of the second round for the next 5 years. Seems like 8 years of failure to me before winning the cup and then flaming out to an expansion team in round 1 again. Narratives are easy to spin.
If losing in R2 is a failure then we are a worse failure in that case as we have only 1 of those
Mackinnon and the Avs have 4 2nd round series outside of their cup run
We just saw matthews put 4 pts in 5 games and not be able to takeover another series. Injuries can partially excuse this year, but we have seen him fail to do so in the past too (2019 vs Bruins, 2021 vs habs). He hasnt showj that next level ability to produce in the playoffs that Mackinnon has so far
Mackinnon regular season is more consistent generally than Matthews and more valuable.
Matthews has 2 years where he was a hart finalist/winner
Mackinnon has 3 and this will likely be his 4th (he comes 1st or 2nd to Kucherov this year)
Mackinnon play & production however from reg season doesnt have the insame variance that Matthews (and JT and Marner) have which is what makes him the better building block and long term asset