Auston Matthews Thread

[rumman]

11.634 AAV; 3rd highest in the league; would be nice if it translated on ice.

we waiting; anytime now would be nice........

P.S. at least his line wasn't on the ice for a goal against;

oh no wait a minute Nylander's super defensive play made it so difficult on the flyers

yup that was some elite useless stick sweeping.

 

[rumman]

I've been holding off on saying it but yeah.....it definitely looks like that right now. Matthews just isn't a very big factor if he isn't scoring the puck.

He has a lot to work on, one of it is putting in consistent effort/aggression. If he plays like he's 6'3 he could be a dominant force night in and night out

Mathews could be a monster, but he's happy being a ppg player.

 

[CincoHolio]

We've been Laine'd





Relax. I'm Kidding.




(please say we haven't been Laine'd)

 

[ULF_55]

He didn't look good, as in healthy when they had a close up on him.

Are we sure the Leafs fitness and health management team is the best money can buy?

 

[All Mod Cons]

Doesn't look arsed most of the time

 

[ORRFForever]

Id say the 11 goals is a pretty good argument against him being "invisible" at least in terms of the season long perspective vs an individual game

I'm not the only one who feels that he is "invisible" more times than he is not - and the number of people who agree is growing. As you know, there are many "Matthews is Overrated" threads on the main board.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Guys, remember Matthews first NHL game? 4 goals against the Sens (and we still lost). Well a lot has happened since then and I really think the injuries he has sustained have a big factor on him. As a result he really seems to have become injury prone and worse of all - this has made him hesitant to have any physical contact on the ice. I blame his injuries for his play. This is my take on this, but I believe it will be proven true in the future.

 

[rumman]

I'm not the only one who feels that he is "invisible" more times than he is not - and the number of people who agree is growing. As you know, there are many "Matthews is Overrated" threads on the main board.

guy puts up points no doubt about it, but I know he can be so much better, we all know he can be so much better. That's what's pissing people off.

 

[baton elevated]

I was irate when he signed a 5 year deal and not give us 8. This may actually be a blessing in disguise. I know the talent is there but he doesn't show up enough for my liking.
What could we get out of Phoenix in a fair trade from both teams?
Has to start with OEL and add from there.

 

[rumman]

I was irate when he signed a 5 year deal and not give us 8. This may actually be a blessing in disguise. I know the talent is there but he doesn't show up enough for my liking.
What could we get out of Phoenix in a fair trade from both teams?
Has to start with OEL and add from there.

OEL, Keller, and Crouse sounds about right.

 

[baton elevated]

OEL, Keller, and Crouse sounds about right.

Maybe a bit more Rum......after all AM is the man that is going to resurrect the desert dogs. At least 1 or 2 first rounders has to come too. Crouse is not what he was billed as, Keller is fine and OEL has the age difference.

 

[rumman]

Maybe a bit more Rum......after all AM is the man that is going to resurrect the desert dogs. At least 1 or 2 first rounders has to come too. Crouse is not what he was billed as, Keller is fine and OEL has the age difference.

sure, package Ceci and Bracco with AM and get Dvorak and Hammer added to OEl, Keller, and Crouse.

 

[socko]

Mathews could be a monster, but he's happy being a ppg player.

He's still mooning people for goodness sakes. So immature.

 

[Trapper]

I was irate when he signed a 5 year deal and not give us 8. This may actually be a blessing in disguise. I know the talent is there but he doesn't show up enough for my liking.
What could we get out of Phoenix in a fair trade from both teams?
Has to start with OEL and add from there.

If you are going to trade him, forget about Arizona.
Get a bidding war going that brings back 3-4 pieces. Let the next team worry about Arizona.

 

[Ports]

You people are why being a Leafs fan can be embarrassing sometimes.

We go decades without having young star talent and we finally get some and this is what happens.

The talent is only useful when it Competes hard every night. One out of every two or three games is not enough. Do you think Crosby or Bergeron play that way?

 

[Duke Silver]

OEL, Keller, and Crouse sounds about right.

You want to trade a 22yo franchise centreman for an aging defenceman, a 60-point winger and a draft disappointment?

 

[baton elevated]

If you are going to trade him, forget about Arizona.
Get a bidding war going that brings back 3-4 pieces. Let the next team worry about Arizona.

Who do you propose? NYR ? They always want a marquee name. We can start with Kakko.

 

[Ports]

Matthews was insane against Washington and then invisible against Philly tonight. Lately it’s seemed like he’s been alternating between good game/bad game. He needs to dig deep and find consistency game in and game out. He looked like a top5 player against Washington and I barely noticed his line on the ice tonight. I expect a lot more from him.

Maybe he just doesn’t give a sh... It would explain a lot.

 

[Ports]

Easily our best player this year and it's not even close, but he could stand to be better so he's public enemy #1 of our players

He should be the best player. He’s a number one overall pick and the highest paid player in the league given his contract term. He’s an elite goal scorer but can be a liability otherwise. People expect more effort and consistency and that’s fair.

 

[Ports]

He didn't look good, as in healthy when they had a close up on him.

Are we sure the Leafs fitness and health management team is the best money can buy?[/In what way did he not look healthy ?

 

[LeafingTheWay]

I was irate when he signed a 5 year deal and not give us 8. This may actually be a blessing in disguise. I know the talent is there but he doesn't show up enough for my liking.
What could we get out of Phoenix in a fair trade from both teams?
Has to start with OEL and add from there.

Matthews for Phil Kessel

 

[Ports]

Guys, remember Matthews first NHL game? 4 goals against the Sens (and we still lost). Well a lot has happened since then and I really think the injuries he has sustained have a big factor on him. As a result he really seems to have become injury prone and worse of all - this has made him hesitant to have any physical contact on the ice. I blame his injuries for his play. This is my take on this, but I believe it will be proven true in the future.

Maybe so but he was never physical in any way prior to his injuries.

 

[LeafGrief]

He was awful in the 2 Boston games and the Columbus game. That was 3 in a row. He may have 11 goals but 5 of them were in the first 3 games. He’s dogging it the majority of the time and can’t be arsed to put in an effort EVERY night.

He talked his BS about needing to be better and then came out the next game, somehow, playing worse.

He’s still very young but it is worrying.

Tiny, little Pettersson took a shot the other day. What did he do? He went and played harder and took a nice run at the guy, clean.

Eichel, McDavid, Laine etc, don’t put up with that bull****. They go harder and make the other team pay on the scoreboard- EVERY NIGHT.

I’m sorry, Matthews doesn’t do that and until he develops a mean streak, it’s going to continue to be frustrating.

It also doesn’t help that the rest of the league knows they can take liberties on this team and nothing will happen. I don’t even care about fighting. Just go out there and play hard. Battle, finish your checks and show like you give a **** for 2 seconds.

I’m not going to get into accounting mode of when Matthews has been good or not. He was dominant the first few games of the season, sucked butts for a while, and has been on/off for the last few weeks. Even if he’s dominant 50% of the time, that’s obviously not enough.

He’s the best player on this team by a mile and a half when he has a mind to be and it is frustrating to no end when he’s not “on”. I don’t care at all about a mean streak, but I do want to see him show that competitive edge more often. He’s spoken to the media a few times about needing to be better and will play like a man on fire for one game and then be non existent for the next. I believe in him to the end of the world, but I’m just as frustrated as anyone with how a lot of those games are going.

 

[Stephen]

Perhaps we could use a "Matthews Whisperer" to get him to tap into his A game more frequently. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to get Marner going when when Tavares is out for a couple of weeks, but aside from Nylander we've never really seen them try to define how they want to deploy Matthews, what to surround him with.

Do we want to use him more like a Stamkos trigger man, do we want to mold him into a center who centers a cycling line with heavier wingers to rag the puck and collapse to the net, do we want to put him through the Bergeron/Datsyuk/Zetterberg kind of two way program, ween him off points and try to build a more complete 200 foot game?

 

[LeafGrief]

Maybe he just doesn’t give a sh... It would explain a lot.

Perhaps he doesn’t care a lot about the regular season, but I don’t think that’s actually a hypothesis that fits the evidence. He was our best player against Boston last year, after he signed his contract. He’s had games this year where he’s looked like that top5 player.

To me he doesn’t look like a guy who doesn’t give a shit. Perhaps he’s tuned out his coach, doesn’t have a great method for mentally preparing for games, or some other problem that makes him lifeless for ~50% of games. Whatever it is, he’s not playing good enough, often enough. But oh man, when he’s playing his game he’s f***ing phenomenal. That’s not a guy who doesn’t give a shit, there’s something else going on.

Frankly, I think that’s the case for most of the team. I don’t think these guys don’t care, I just think their brains are somewhere else. When they snap out of it and back into hockey, they’ve shown us an unreal team. Problem is, they’re off in la-la land the other 75% of the time.