Auston Matthews Thread

[Wafflewhipper]

It's not my contract that is unreasonable. It's his.

And unreasonable contracts come with unreasonable expectations.

He hasn't been nearly good enough considering his contract. This is precisely how it works. A players performance is weighed against their contract. Always has been.

Its weighed on linemates also. Remember the debate on who carries who on whatever line or who is a drag on a line. Linemates effect productivity! That said, he stands up very well alone for the money he makes right now anyway.

You are the fan, enjoy the hockey and you will never have any say in contract negotiations anyways. Just like the rest of us. You expect to get anywhere saying you have outrageous and unreasonable expectations?

Come on man enjoy a bit

 

[shaner82]

Last year at the 21 game mark Matthew's had 19 goals and 33 points in his first 21 games. Over an 82 game season that would be 74 goals and 128 points.

By the end of the year, his pace fell to 44 goals and 88 points.

So right around the time that Babcock neutered the team and forced them to play a boring, conservative, defensive minded style as opposed to doing what they do best. Not surprised his production dropped off and won't be surprised if he doesn't crack 100 points at the end of this year either. The style of play the Leafs utilize is not conducive to goal production.

 

[Stamkos4life]

So right around the time that Babcock neutered the team and forced them to play a boring, conservative, defensive minded style as opposed to doing what they do best. Not surprised his production dropped off and won't be surprised if he doesn't crack 100 points at the end of this year either. The style of play the Leafs utilize is not conducive to goal production.

We finished 4th in goals last year, 4 goals short of 2nd place. The idea that our style isnt conducive to goal production is not accurate.

 

[Judas Tavares]

Matthews is awesome and anyone picking on little things are trolls. This guy is so good it is ridiculous! Not saying he is perfect but he leads all centers in goals, is the best of the best centers on faceoffs, climbing up the league scoring ladder with linemates that have struggles at certain points in the first 20 games.

I wouldn’t trade him straight up for McDavid and he will prove me right on that statement. Is best shot in the league easily. People stop posting on here because posters actually find things to complain about in mean,negative ways against Matthews. He is completely deadly and the only flaw is his confidence in his talent leads him coast at times.

The work ethic has come back lately and i wonder just how deadly he will be the next 20 games. He could be pounts and goals leader in the entire league at the 40 game mark if Willy and Johnny keep up the better/ more consistent play they are showing recently.

Complaints about him are funny to me. They make no sense in his overall game whatsoever!

Sometimes I wonder, when you combine our bored "misery loves company" media constantly shitting on players. With them constantly hyping up other players and "why can't he be like that". And with us seeing only highlights and the statsheet of others players. All this gives a negative impression of what we have. We analyze every lost faceoff. Every lost man in coverage. While with others we see 10 second snippits of sexy goals. So everything looks golden with them, while sure, our guy pumps a goal here or there, but he lost some draws so you know, he isn't that sexy guy in that other market. I honestly think if we had McDavid we would find a way to shit all over him too.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

Sometimes I wonder, when you combine our bored "misery loves company" media constantly ****ting on players. With them constantly hyping up other players and "why can't he be like that". And with us seeing only highlights and the statsheet of others players. All this gives a negative impression of what we have. We analyze every lost faceoff. Every lost man in coverage. While with others we see 10 second snippits of sexy goals. So everything looks golden with them, while sure, our guy pumps a goal here or there, but he lost some draws so you know, he isn't that sexy guy in that other market. I honestly think if we had McDavid we would find a way to **** all over him too.

They always always pump up the expectations of the players/team in order to have a degree of fan agreement over a prolonged block of time so as to start the negative tear down and incrementally beat down the team. They do this during spells of bad play and continue it during spells of good play.

For example: when have you heard this year how young the Leafs our Leafs are in comparison to the rest of teams? It is not in their interest to promote positives they intentionally insist in neglecting to ever mention this.

They make their own propaganda and then shove it down everyones throats because they really are a very lazy media with a very low talent level coming along to evaluate the team fairly due to knowledgeable evaluations of the facts.

Its a very misleading,Lazy,talent lacking media.

 

[ottomaddox]

Hear me out. Hear me out.

I am not questioning his skills or ability to score. We all know he can do that as well as anyone.

The game of hockey is won in three zones. "Hey let's go score a goal" attitude is great, but what about AM's play away from the puck? Is the effort there? Does he make it hard for the other team to pass through the neutral zone, or cover his man in the D-zone? My answer would be: when he feels like it. I can tell you that he really doesn't like to work very hard to win a puck battle. That much has been well documented.

Sometimes it really feels like AM is not going through growing pains or teachable moments. Many times it feels like he's disgruntled.

Is he purposefully trying to get his coach fired?

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Matthews is one of the few players that seems to give a shit lately. So odd timing on this one.

 

[Stephen]

Don’t know anyone’s motivations. But wouldn’t it be fair to say the entire team has a sloppy attitude about defensive coverage and puck recovery in general?

The gap control and decision making on that first Marchand goal by Morgan Rielly was so abysmal. Tries to keep Marchand to the outside, gets beat to the outside for a scoring chance and instead of playing the man kind of sloppily goes for the loose puck (which was out of reach) and gives Marchand all the space in the world to get the rebound.

 

[Tit]

Don’t know anyone’s motivations. But wouldn’t it be fair to say the entire team has a sloppy attitude about defensive coverage and puck recovery in general?

The gap control and decision making on that first Marchand goal by Morgan Rielly was so abysmal. Tries to keep Marchand to the outside, gets beat to the outside for a scoring chance and instead of playing the man kind of sloppily goes for the loose puck (which was out of reach) and gives Marchand all the space in the world to get the rebound.

Sorry but this is wrong.
That goal is 100% on Freddie.
What the hell was he doing flopping around on the ice?
Freddie has been great for us all year, but that goal was terrible.

 

[ottomaddox]

Matthews is one of the few players that seems to give a **** lately. So odd timing on this one.

Not really. He does have an entire hockey career we can reflect on.

 

[ChuckWoods]

This isn't on just Austin.

He is a player who is notorious around the NHL for almost taking it personally when stripped of the puck which is a good mind set.

As Stephen point out above, its the entire team.

For me, thats a clear indication the team has lost faith in the system in place. That can be separate and above losing faith in a coach.

There has been ZERO adjustments made by Babcock outside of his adjustment of stretch passes, and when a team keeps playing the same system but keeps running into the same issues, yet your coach refuses to adjust with the times, it can be demoralizing for the entire team.

I believe this is what we are seeing.

So they realistically need a shake up, because coming back from where they are is very difficult, but not impossible.

One “lucky” aspect this team is going for the is the fact they have been riddled with injuries and some teams can feel the urgency to step up in key player absences, so if we do indeed see that urgency it can be infectious which can carry momentum even on return of those key players.

 

[Eternal Leaf]

If that was the case, they would only lose when he has off games.

However, the Leafs seem to be losing when he's dominating out on the ice too (i.e. 4 pt game vs CHI). This is a team-wide structural problem and has nothing to do with 1-2 players.

 

[Mad hatter]

Sorry but this is wrong.
That goal is 100% on Freddie.
What the hell was he doing flopping around on the ice?
Freddie has been great for us all year, but that goal was terrible.

Agreed that Freddy should have had that one, wasn’t he strongest game but Reilly just let him skate in and get 2 shots. I realize that he’s playing through an injury and that maybe is affecting his pivoting?

Matthews was good last night and I feel the effort was there just why does he lose so many puck battles for such a big kid?

 

[Romkey]

Classic ridiculous and stupid thread from Heybuddy, thanks for the laughs

 

[DarkKnight]

Delete?

 

[Leaf Fans]

If he would score less and put less effort in the games. Coaches would bench him and they would keep their job and get known as a tough coach. So yes, he is.

 

[Nithoniniel]

There's like two players on the team that has upped their work ethic and overall play, and that's Matthews and Nylander.

I have no idea why those two, and the line as a whole, continue to be criticized. They are the bright spot of the team right now.

 

[coupe93]

What I saw last night was an angry/inspired Matthews. He almost matched his total hits this season in this one game, and goes to the dirty areas to score his goals. I loved his game, especially last night. Hope it's contagious. I think they call that leading by example? Well done Matty!

 

[Menzinger]

There's like two players on the team that has upped their work ethic and overall play, and that's Matthews and Nylander.

I have no idea why those two, and the line as a whole, continue to be criticized. They are the bright spot of the team right now.

That line is the one part of this team that i can clealry say has been a bright spot for the season. That can be a dominant 1st line in the league.

I just wish the rest of the team could be as impactful lol

 

[TheDoldrums]

That line is the one part of this team that i can clealry say has been a bright spot for the season. That can be a dominant 1st line in the league.

I just wish the rest of the team could be as impactful lol

Johnsson is a serious liability with his penalties. It's ridiculous at this point. Honestly one of the biggest weaknesses of that line, especially with our PK.

 

[MattySnipes]

5v5

Matthews has played about 332:49 TOI at 5v5 so far through 22 games.

When he's on the ice his CF% and SF% are both over 57% which is amazing because those are career-highs for him if he keeps up at that pace. Crazy thing is they'd be even higher, but he's had 7 games this year where he's had a CF% below 50%.

Game 3 vs. MTL: 40.91%
Game 9 vs. BOS: 41.03%
Game 11 at BOS: 42.31%
Game 13 at MTL: 45.16%
Game 14 vs. WSH: 46.15%
Game 15 at PHI: 45.16%
Game 16 vs. LAK: 45.45%

One negative is back in 2017-18 he was on the ice for 16 HDGA through 62 games. This season, he's been on the ice for 9 already through only 22 games.

However, hard for Matthews to get all the blame there. It's vital for any great team to have their goalie(s) make you important saves when your best player is on the ice.

In 2017-18, he got a .940 SV% when he was on the ice. Last season it was a brutal .900 and this current season it's become even worse at only .890.

Most of his faceoffs are in the offensive and neutral zones. His faceoff % in the o-zone is over 70%. His PDO is at 1.002.

 

[A1LeafNation]

So where was Matthews?



He still has an 'A' right?

 

[Martin Skoula]

So where was Matthews?



He still has an 'A' right?

One guy carries the team on his back while everyone else is cold, the other guys are hot garbage on the ice and had a meeting with the coach. Somehow the second of those two is leadership.

 

[Dragao6]

They're only your expectations, those aren't the expectations of most people.
Matthews didn't hold out. He didn't refuse to report for training camp. He agreed to a deal the team offered him.
Should he have said no?

The art of negotiation is to ask for the world and settle for much less. He obviously asked for a lot and the team agreed. The team was under no pressure to do so as it was the middle of the season and time was not an issue. What exactly did Matthews do wrong?

We have one of the most talented players in the league and yet this fan base wants to **** on the guy. What is wrong with Leafs fans?

It does suck though watching him coast a game leafs lose and him scoring a late minute goal so that his stats justify his contract/status.

I'd prefer a player that drives the play every shift and score 20-30 goals then a 40 goal scorer that picks his games to give an effort, even though I really liked his game vs Boston.

 

[Dragao6]

whats the difference really! He is right there with McDavid. Its just a sideways move really lol. Nothing wrong with being completely content with the grass on this side the fence is there ha!

No...no hes not lol, not even close