ijuka said:
Regardless of "that other guy", why is this thread so dead? Does no one just feel like looking up examples of Matthews's plays and analyse his play style / compile shift by shifts and look at what sorts of things he does in the way I like to do with "the other guy" or is it that Matthews is already a pretty well known and established asset so there's not many surprises left and not that much to discuss anymore?
I've been pretty disappointed with this thread.
I guess I'll go do some puck reliability stats for him in a random game to kill some time, say the USA vs Czechia match. Even though this is something the Americans or the Leafs fans are supposed to be doing...
Americans don't care about Matthews nearly as much as Finns care about Laine. Actually no country ever has cared about a prospect more than Finnish people care about Laine.
Leafs fans don't feel the need to obsessively argue for Matthews everyday because we're not arguing against the consensus. The vast majority of scouting services have Matthews first. The vast majority of Leafs fans agree with that. There's no need to craft arguments designed to sway people to our side. The lack of activity is a reflection of how comfortable and at peace we are with Matthews as our pick. Honestly, you would see so much more activity on this board from Leafs fans if the pick wasn't so obvious. Last year Toronto fans were somewhat divided over Marner, Strome and Hanifin and there was a lot more discussion and arguments.
Leafs fans have spent a lot more time and energy defending Marner, because Marner has detractors who question his ability to translate to the NHL. He needs defending, sometimes. Matthews does not. Matthews gets labelled as such a 'safe' pick for a reason, it's because there are no serious holes in his game for people to poke at.
aka Ude said:
The guy's a great player, but his confidence worries me a little bit. In interviews he just says what they want him to say. Guy has no own will.
Are you serious? It takes a ton of confidence to choose your own path and go to Europe to play pro instead of taking the traditional route for an American. To be frank, that takes balls. His interviews are exactly as boring as franchise centres like Crosby, Toews, Tavares, etc. Most leaders in the game are like that.
