Will Matthews Win The Rocket Richard This Year?

[DitchMarner]

He's well behind the goal scoring leader at this point, but there's a long way to go.

He started off slowly last season and didn't score a lot late in the season, but he was an absolute scoring machine for about 50 games.

Click to read more...

 

[norrisnick]

Should start with leading the Leafs in goal scoring.

 

[Xspyrit]

One hat trick and he's top-5.

Robertson and Horvat have been scoring machines but a season is very long

Have a feeling it's going to be a Robertson vs McDavid vs Matthews race

 

[centipede2233]

Matthews will not win the rocket this year. His even strength production a quarter through the season is abysmal.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Matthews will not win the rocket this year. His even strength production a quarter through the season is abysmal.

Ya he’s usually much better even strength scoring, finally got one last night, you could see how happy he was to get one.

 

[RANDOMH3RO]

I remember specifically saying last year that he was too far out to catch draisaitl and ovechkin. He barely missed a game without a goal for the rest of the year after that, so he’s definitely not out of the race. I would bet that he doesn’t, but he is more than capable.

 

[TheDoldrums]

At this point it's definitely more likely he doesn't win. But you can't count him out, he did 51 in 50 games at one point last year.

But he doesn't look nearly as good this season so I doubt it.

 

[Regal]

I’ll stick with the preseason predictions and say yes. He really doesn’t look great this year, but I think he’s too good not to figure it out and he’s not that far behind, given the leaders haven’t shown sustainability as Richard competitors.

 

[Martin Skoula]

I don't see it happening, something is seriously wrong with his shot. He's on pace for 40 or so but if you watch them all, only 2 are actual shots. The rest are deflections and cleaning up garbage in front of the net.

If he scores 50, his highlight reel is going to look more like Kreider's last year than Ovechkin's unless his wrist/ribs or whatever is bothering him fixes itself.

 

[centipede2233]

The leafs would be making a mistake resigning him at 13 mil plus a season.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

I’d put money on McDavid this year. I doubt that Horvat and Robertson can keep up this pace although one of them could have a Kreider type season.
As an aside, goal scoring is such a streaky thing. There’s guys like Ovechkin and Matthews who always seem to be there but then there are guys who just come out of nowhere for a season or two.
Horvat’s best previous season is 31 goals but he’s generally in the mid 20’s or so. He has the one playoff run where he was scoring at the rate of a goal every two games or so but that looked like an aberration. Up until this year anyways.

 

[canuckking1]

He has a shot. He's only 7-8 goals back of the lead, and the players ahead of him aren't even perennial rocket contenders, so there's a chance of a dropoff.

 

[leafsfan5]

I think if he was 100% determined to do it he could

But I think he'll pot 45-50 goals and just get ready for the playoffs

 

[HarrisonFord]

I don’t think so. I don’t think he’s far enough back from the leaders that it’s unreasonable for him to catch up but he just seems a bit off this year

 

[dirtydanglez]

too many people are counting matthews out. he'll sneek up on ya and jiggle your doorhandles.

 

[Namikaze Minato]

Heart says yes.

 

[Video Nasty]

Didn’t think so coming into the season, certainly no reason to change my opinion like 85+% of this site did.

 

[AvroArrow]

He started off slow last year as well, then proceeded to score 50 in 50. You can't count him out, back to back Richard winner, was 1 goal away from winning 3 in a row.

 

[The Podium]

delete

 

[Regal]

2 goals from winning in his rookie season as well

4

 

[The Podium]

4

Yup, my mistake

 

[Rengorlex]

I'd still have him as the #1 favourite, but not quite confident enough to vote over the field.

 

[Bedards Dad]

I'll take the field, but if I was forced to take one player it's still Mathews. He had 50 goals from Dec 1 onwards last year. I don't expect that again, but if anyone can do it it's him.

 

[Christ]

He has not been using his bread and butter shot much this season. I am of the opinion that this may indicate that he is dealing with a minor wrist injury. Regardless, if he does not start using his wrister more often like he has done the past few years, I don't see him scoring more then 35-40 goals at most. That said, last year he started out slow as well (also not using the wrist shot) but suddenly went red hot. Not going to rule him out yet.

 

[EK392000]

He's on pace for 37 goals, with him being ice cold and shooting at 10.7%, as opposed to his career average of 16.1%

The pucks will start going in eventually.