Player Discussion Auston Matthews Discussion

[HamiltonNHL]

50 even strength goals is crazy

What’s the next highest ?

 

[Dekes For Days]

What’s the next highest ?

Matthews has 51. Mackinnon is 2nd with 41.
There are only 10 players in the league with more than 27.

 

[BraveCanadian]

If AM needs a goal or two heading to Florida, 100% Keefe will let him make the call on whether he wants to play and 100% he'll want to play.

On one hand, I'd love to see him offer to sit which would send a powerful message to everyone that the playoffs are the only priority (and of course sitting means avoiding injury), but on the other he should want to play. Athletes never, ever want to miss a game, even if it's in the best interests of the team and/or himself. Pros/cons on both sides of that.

There's also a part of me that hopes plays but doesn't get 70 so that he gets really pissed off and takes it out on their first round opponents (and second round, and third ...).

But without a crystal ball, I say he if he's short of 70 going into Florida, he plays and if it ends up being a huge mistake, well, welcome to life being a Leafs fan

Like the powerful message of sitting Marner at 99 last year?

Don't see Matthew$ sitting if he has even a chance of 70 and I don't see it making any difference for the playoffs, either.

 

[robertmac43]

Insane we get to watch this player night in and night out.

 

[ToneDog]

Insane we get to watch this player night in and night out.

Insane we have managed to win a single round with this guy (Mitch, Willy and JT). As bad as the Oilers have been, they have had more playoff success with McDavid (and Drai).

 

[1specter]

Insane we have managed to win a single round with this guy (Mitch, Willy and JT). As bad as the Oilers have been, they have had more playoff success with McDavid (and Drai).

Not really the thread to complain about this. Just enjoy the fact that he's making history and we'll complain about playoffs later.

 

[Peasy]

f*** sitting him before he hits 70. If hes at 69 and its the final game of the season and he wants to play, play him. Just limit his minutes. Just play him like 14 mins, and have him stay out the entire PP.

 

[robertmac43]

Insane we have managed to win a single round with this guy (Mitch, Willy and JT). As bad as the Oilers have been, they have had more playoff success with McDavid (and Drai).

They even found success with Drai playing on one leg a few years back lol

 

[1specter]

f*** sitting him before he hits 70. If hes at 69 and its the final game of the season and he wants to play, play him. Just limit his minutes. Just play him like 14 mins, and have him stay out the entire PP.

All offensive zone starts only lol

 

[Gary Nylund]

f*** sitting him before he hits 70. If hes at 69 and its the final game of the season and he wants to play, play him. Just limit his minutes. Just play him like 14 mins, and have him stay out the entire PP.

If he doesn't hit 70 before the final game, then he's a loser and Keefe should sit him for the 1st period of the playoffs to give him a chance to ponder his existence.

JK.

 

[kb]

As of this moment, AM34 is tied for the 8th most even strength goals ever in one season with 51. 8th in the history of the league

One more and he moves into a tie for 6th most ever in a season.

We truly are witnessing someone doing something historic. Yet I see posters in here shitting on him, and/or saying what he's doing is nothing special and that all the others are ahead of him by a significant margin. He is the best (or one of) defensive C by most metrics too.

Stop catering to other fanbases feelings people. He is as good as any player in the league right now, and has been for years.

 

[Jojalu]

Matthews (274) passed Mats Sundin (273) for most even-strength goals in Leafs history. Sundin needed 981 games to reach that mark; Matthews needed 559 to pass him. Matthews also passed Dave Keon for third in all-time Leafs goals. He’s 26.

 

[Gary Nylund]

As of this moment, AM34 is tied for the 8th most even strength goals in one season with 51. 8th in the history of the league

One more and he moved into a tie for 6th most ever in a season.

We truly are witnessing someone doing something historic. Yet I see posters in here shitting on him, and/or saying what he's doing is nothing special and that all the others are ahead of him by a significant margin. He is the best (or one of) defensive C by most metrics too.

Stop catering to other fanbases feelings people. He is as good as any player in the league right now, and has been for years.

Let's not get carried away here. I haven't seen anyone say that what he's doing is "nothing special". I'm skeptical that you have either but if you really have, can you quote them so I can go yell at them?

Yes this is a special player having a special season. As far as him having been as good as any player "for years", he wasn't that great last season. It's a ton of fun watching him score goals like crazy but I see no need to re-write history.

 

[LeafsFan89]

Matthews (274) passed Mats Sundin (273) for most even-strength goals in Leafs history. Sundin needed 981 games to reach that mark; Matthews needed 559 to pass him. Matthews also passed Dave Keon for third in all-time Leafs goals. He’s 26.

I think that says more about our franchise than anything lol.

 

[ACC1224]

Matthews (274) passed Mats Sundin (273) for most even-strength goals in Leafs history. Sundin needed 981 games to reach that mark; Matthews needed 559 to pass him. Matthews also passed Dave Keon for third in all-time Leafs goals. He’s 26.

What would have been had Sundin be given a Marner or Nylander instead of a Hoglund?

 

[Gary Nylund]

What would have been had Sundin be given a Marner or Nylander instead of a Hoglund?

Considering how well Matthews is doing without Marner, might not have mattered as much as you might think. Seems like great players will produce no matter what. Gilmour is another example, he killed it here from the start and it was only later that we traded for Andreychuk to play with him.

 

[kb]

What would have been had Sundin be given a Marner or Nylander instead of a Hoglund?

Hard to say, but AM34 has 14G and 26 pts in the last 16 games without either as his regular linemates.

 

[MSZ]

What would have been had Sundin be given a Marner or Nylander instead of a Hoglund?

Different era though, Sundin had 41 goals and 80 pts in 2002, those numbers put him 2nd in goal and 4th in pts that year.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Hard to say, but AM34 has 14G and 26 pts in the last 16 games without either as his regular linemates.

I remember Paul Kariya having some freaky year where he put up something like twice as many points as anyone else on his team. A super elite season playing with basically nobody.

 

[BraveCanadian]

What would have been had Sundin be given a Marner or Nylander instead of a Hoglund?

Honestly I don't think it would have made much difference. Those Leaf teams were already more offensively oriented than most of the league at the time.

 

[kb]

I remember Paul Kariya having some freaky year where he put up something like twice as many points as anyone else on his team. A super elite season playing with basically nobody.

Yeah, I remember that too. Kariya was quite the player.

I also remember most of a season where AM34 had Johnsson and Kapanen as his wingers. Somehow turned them into 20 G scorers.

 

[Jojalu]

I think that says more about our franchise than anything lol.

It is surprising that for all the great players the Leafs have had over the years that either none of them stayed long enough, or were quite good enough to reach 500 goals or 1000 points.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Yeah, I remember that too. Kariya was quite the player.

I also remember most of a season where AM34 had Johnsson and Kapanen as his wingers. Somehow turned them into 20 G scorers.

I just looked up the stats for Gretzky's rookie year, just curious. 137 points, next highest on the team with 94 was some guy named Blair MacDonald, then Stan Weir with 66.

 

[Sypher04]

Not generally a huge fan of Siegel but this is a good write up imo

Auston Matthews kinda has to be the MVP — doesn't he?

Is it possible we’re still somehow underrating the season Auston Matthews is putting together?

theathletic.com

 

[Stephen]

What would have been had Sundin be given a Marner or Nylander instead of a Hoglund?

Mats Sundin did manage 114 points in a shoot ‘em out vintage year of 1992-93 while still in Quebec, but I don’t think he had the tools or the running mates to approach anything like 70 goals like this. He did come in 4th in 2002 during a low scoring year but it was a completely different game back then and the sport was littered with Hall of Fame caliber goalies as well.