Overall: my point is, I'd rather we not handicap our most dangerous weapon. Because whatever reasoning you try to present. You miss once crucial fact. All great teams play their top C a lot of mins. It's how you win Cups. If you're content with just playoff appearances then I guess its fine the way it is now. But some of us want more.
well i wrote down a big response (and i'll actually save it and post it if you want, but i figure the crux of what you are saying is here .
1. i obviously want more, so you can stop saying "if you are content with playoff appearances" to me
2: i'm not
missing that crucial fact that top centres play more.
Let's say the top centre plays an medium of 22 minutes, Yah?
Matthews plays an average of 18. That's missing an average of 4 minutes.
Those 4 minutes come either one of three ways
1: powerplay time.
Matthews unit statistically the past 2 years has not been the more productive unit. That's Marner's unit. (now that Bozak/JVR are gone, i would put Matthews on the Marner unit and I think that should change anyway. Natural addition of 2 minutes right there).
also. we tend to forget the Leafs don't generally 1: draw many penalties, and 2: when they do they don't spend a lot of time on it, because it's so efficient. Ergo even if he did get PP time, the minutes might not exactly show 2 minutes but we'll just use it for maths sake.
2: Penalty Kill Time.
I think personally Matty would be a great PKer. if he did, that's your 2++ (due to the amount of penalties to powerplay ratio that the Leafs generate)
3: More Even Strength Time.
Matthews is most efficient playing five on five. so arguably this means Matthews will continue to go up against the other teams best lines
even at home, taking an average of 2 minutes from Kadri (who is the shut down centre at home as Matthews faces the toplines on the road for the most part). As Matthews gets strong/better, he will more than likely become the "Bergeron" again, 2 extra minutes.
that's not taking into consideration (we are losing , play matthews more or, Matthews is having a night, play matthews more). Woila. Matthews 4 missing minutes to put him on average with everyone else. something that will naturally come with time (and patience if we're going with Options 2 or 3).
i feel that a lot of that will just come with time (or just naturally). I personally feel this team is plenty dangerous and capable of winning the cup playing balanced as it is, making adjustments as it calls for. so again the argument of "Matthews needs to be unleashed." is mitigating the fact that the Leafs have 2 dangerous lines.. and I also think that we can win the cup without having to ride Matthews into the ground like a donkey because of that strength. that doesn't mean when it calls for it that we shouldn't. (we should). just that, because of what we have up front, we don't need to. Matthews can tilt the ice. Marner can tilt the ice. (now depending what we do for line #3 this argument can and will change obviously, and that actually in fact can even explain another 2+ minutes for Matthews,which again. is a natural occurrence, not having to be "unleashed." and to just. continue with that word choice, if we can say that Babcock is trying to get Matthews more and more responsible (and strong and confident) in the defensive zone, (he is already i just mean "better") wouldn't it make more sense to unleash Matthews when he's capable of being his very best, not just half baked?)