I find that the rare times Marner and Matthews find themselves on the ice together (at even strength), they almost always make something happen. They were made for each other, but Babcock made the decision long ago that they absolutely will not be line-mates. IIRC, there was an interview in the offseason where he got defensive when asked about the possibility of putting them together. I would be stunned if he changed his mind.
Auston Matthews
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I find that the rare times Marner and Matthews find themselves on the ice together (at even strength), they almost always make something happen. They were made for each other, but Babcock made the decision long ago that they absolutely will not be line-mates. IIRC, there was an interview in the offseason where he got defensive when asked about the possibility of putting them together. I would be stunned if he changed his mind.
Menzinger
Kessel4LadyByng
Stephen
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When Matthews is pressing to create offense, it feels like he goes into a bit of a tunnel vision mode and doesn't do a very good job of engaging his linemates. His bread and butter is the sniping, but when he's forcing that and getting isolated, he's not responding by threatening with elite playmaking. This was something Kessel did very well a few years into his tenure here when he started blending a surprisingly great playmaking game with his sniping. I think it will come, but if we trust Matthews to be a $13 million uber franchise player, we can't be too critical of his linemates, because the expectation should be whatever line he is on is automatically the big line, and he should be making Kapanen, Nylander, Johnsson, Hyman, etc. all better for being on his line.
hector morrison
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He's hurt,100% ,no doubt . The shots are too sporadic.No other reason to not be shooting.
ORRFForever
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He's looking like how he looked in last year's playoffs. No emotion. Flat. Sulking.
That's not becoming someone who wants to be a $12M/yr player.
That's not becoming someone who wants to be a $12M/yr player.
bonjovi0308
Registered User
Why some people here thought Matthews is entitled to more playing time, to better linemates like Marner, to more PP time, to be the No.1 man on the team etc. Sorry this team is competitive and you need to show the coach that you earn it. Stop blaming Babcock because its obvious the teams play fall off when Matthews came back from injury.
Stephen
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Matthew is struggling based on his Mario Lemieux level hot streaks, but he's a 21 year old still learning to win and still quite productive in his cold streak.
I sure hope these are growing pains and we can stop characterizing it as sulking attitude, or that the solution to this is to coddle him. I want to see that elite drive train player work through these problems and get better as time goes on. That's my expectation.
CelticDruid
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Brilliant idea!
We should also trade Andersen and get a pet monkey to call out the line changes.
hector morrison
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Not a good idea to bring personality conflicts into the big picture. These guys have guidance from Marleau,Hainsey,JT. I would hope that they would stamp out that burning bag of shyte quickly.
The idea of Marner /Matthews has been on every leaf fans mind since day one,but Babs being the stubborn(it worked in Detroit once) twat that he is won't have it. I believe his reasoning is to spread out the scoring,well,he has had success with that strategy. Unfortunately,it doesn't always work.So ,when losing,maybe it would be a good idea to stack a line,maybe he is coming around. Although,I suspect he hopes it doesn't work!Cause then,you know ,gotta answer questions about that!
Leafs at Knight
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm guessing he needs offseason surgery and is just waiting it out.
Still he's on a cold streak like most of the team, and some of the comments already in here are horrible like usual.
Still he's on a cold streak like most of the team, and some of the comments already in here are horrible like usual.
CelticDruid
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I would call it frustration.
Like most of the team his timing is off and that's it.
CelticDruid
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ORRFForever
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As I have said many times, while it's no fun to see this in the regular season, I'm more worried this type of play (from Matthews) will happen in the playoffs once the hitting starts.
He's still at 1.27 PPG. He was bound to have a slump after scoring at will for a long time.
Jimmy Firecracker
Fire Sheldon.
If he's still injured or his shoulder feels even slightly off he shouldn't be playing. Beyond that he doesn't even look engaged. Tonight he was poke-checked in the offensive zone and just floated away. Didn't even try to fight to get the puck back.
Bigmarycombo
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There is a reason Babcock had to go to Arizona last year. I’m sure Matthews must of said something to Dubas at his exit interview.
Matthews not having any playing time with marner
Babs actually saying they can’t play together if we want to win
Matthews seeing all the other stars in the league getting 5 more minutes of ice time than him
Ever changing linemates
I think eventually Dubas will have to choose between Matthews and Babcock
Matthews not having any playing time with marner
Babs actually saying they can’t play together if we want to win
Matthews seeing all the other stars in the league getting 5 more minutes of ice time than him
Ever changing linemates
I think eventually Dubas will have to choose between Matthews and Babcock
My question is why would Dubas want a five year contract so he can walk at th end of it? Only thing I can think of is he doesn’t want to pay him the big bucks because they aren’t convinced he’s worth McDavid money and he will be more tradable should it come to that.
None of those reasons are excuses to not put in a full effort. He won the Calder playing with Nylander and Hyman and scored at a 40 goal pace both years. What the heck is wrong with that?
The fact that players and their parents get to demand who they play with sounds like youth hockey to me and even then it’s wrong.
Matthews has been mostly mediocre since the end of his ridiculous 16 points in seven games streak, where his shooting percentage was over 50. He averages 1.00 points per game after that.
Don't be fooled by the optics of a high points per game, overall besides that hot streak Matthews hasn't been very good.
Do like the Bruins are doing (Pastrnak, Bergeron and Marchand), i.e. Marner, Tavares and Matthews.
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Jacob Trouba hurt Matthews' shoulder badly and Kronwall reinjured it most likely.
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