Are the Leafs a better TEAM without Matthews?

[I am Canadian]

I think objectively the entire group tries harder when Matthews is missing. Now need to find some kind of way to get them to play like that when he is healthy.

 

[AllHeartNoSkill]

Theory: the OP IS Auston Matthews and he’s have an It’s A Wonderful Life moment.

Have people forgotten what life was like without a bona fide #1 centre?

 

[Al14]

Theory: the OP IS Auston Matthews and he’s have an It’s A Wonderful Life moment.

Have people forgotten what life was like without a bona fide #1 centre?

I felt a lot more hope for the future than I do with this OVERPAID core 4. That, I know for sure.

This Leafs team are an average to good regular season team that fails HUGELY in the playoffs. It's the same old, same old, season after season.

Nothing much seems different under Berube than it was under Keefe. I still believe that a huge change to the core 4 is what was needed. Stripping the C from Tavares, and giving it to Matthews, WAS NOT a huge change IMHO.

Pelley HAS NOT made one iota of a difference either. His first move should have been to send Shanahan back to the NHL head offices.

Although Shanahan brought our Leafs back to respectability, he has failed to bring them to a competent and consistent Stanley Cup challenging team. Our Leafs have failed to progress farther in the playoffs, which I think is required to finally win it all.

As a fan base, we still have there is 'always next season' which has been our MO since 1968 on !!! The next season comes and goes with the same lousy playoff results.

All the other NHL teams seem to have great joy beating our Leafs. They have proven to themselves, and their fan bases, that our core 4 is not worthy of their lofty salaries. Too bad our Leafs management team can't see it for themselves, however as long as some Leaf fans have 2 AM 34 jerseys, all is just fine.

I personally won't buy any Leaf merchandise until they win another Stanley Cup. Bring me some Stanley Cup joy first, then I will turn over some of my hard earned pension money for an AM 34 jersey !!!

 

[ToneDog]

I felt a lot more hope for the future than I do with this OVERPAID core 4. That, I know for sure.

This Leafs team are an average to good regular season team that fails HUGELY in the playoffs. It's the same old, same old, season after season.

Nothing much seems different under Berube than it was under Keefe. I still believe that a huge change to the core 4 is what was needed. Stripping the C from Tavares, and giving it to Matthews, WAS NOT a huge change IMHO.

Pelley HAS NOT made one iota of a difference either. His first move should have been to send Shanahan back to the NHL head offices.

Although Shanahan brought our Leafs back to respectability, he has failed to bring them to a competent and consistent Stanley Cup challenging team. Our Leafs have failed to progress farther in the playoffs, which I think is required to finally win it all.

As a fan base, we still have there is 'always next season' which has been our MO since 1968 on !!! The next season comes and goes with the same lousy playoff results.

All the other NHL teams seem to have great joy beating our Leafs. They have proven to themselves, and their fan bases, that our core 4 is not worthy of their lofty salaries. Too bad our Leafs management team can't see it for themselves, however as long as some Leaf fans have 2 AM 34 jerseys, all is just fine.

I personally won't buy any Leaf merchandise until they win another Stanley Cup. Bring me some Stanley Cup joy first, then I will turn over some of my hard earned pension money for an AM 34 jersey !!!

In typical Leafs fashion, they will resign Marner and Tavares and keep running it back. Next year, it will be we changed the President.

Pelley is a joke and he can shove his "we are not here to sell jerseys" quote up his ass. Shanny is a complete joke, all but admitting that they bet on the wrong horses, but he was happy to run them back this year.

 

[Zero1]

In typical Leafs fashion, they will resign Marner and Tavares and keep running it back. Next year, it will be we changed the President.

Pelley is a joke and he can shove his "we are not here to sell jerseys" quote up his ass. Shanny is a complete joke, all but admitting that they bet on the wrong horses, but he was happy to run them back this year.

Pelley is a clown for making that statement and then proceeding to do nothing.

 

[horner]

We all wanted it.

But when you are playing after the Detroit game it was more about keeping him healthy for the playoffs .

 

[Fogelhund]

Boy, lose two games and the mood around here.

We'll go on another winning streak, and suddenly life will be great again. We'll lost two games, and then the sky will be falling.

How about we wait and see how the team performs when it counts this year, Berube has made some good overall progress, despite the last two games... relax... remember that being a fan of sports is about fun.

and no... the team isn't better off without Matthews.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Pelley is a clown for making that statement and then proceeding to do nothing.

What do you expect from a guy whose biggest claim to fame as an exec is losing Rogers billions of dollars on the hockey deal he negotiated?

Just another suit.

 

[mjd1001]

Boy, lose two games and the mood around here.

its actually not that.

Win a few games and the 'positive' crown dominates this forum with their posts. Lose a couple and the 'negative' posters come out and start posting more.

its not the 'mood' of people changes. It is the number of posts and who is posting them at certain times.

 

[HellasLEAF]

He hasn't really looked consistently himself since this play in pursuit of his 70th goal.

Failed to hit 70 in the last few games of the season, was not effective in the Boston series save the one game winner, missed time due to the mystery injury, and hasn't looked right at all since 2024-25 started. Hurt first day of camp and just injured, struggling the rest of the time.

The team was losing 4-3 what do you think he was trying to do there. Tie the game, score another big goal. He flipped over an oblivious Nylander hunting backdoor at the net not that I blame him. It's not like Matthews was looking to get hurt. In subsequent games he tried to tough it out and we can play the should he-shouldn't he but was playing injured to whatever degree and wasn't looking as healthy for playoffs which was around the corner unfortunately. That's just how she goes it's hockey. Must we continue to berate him over it now I wonder? I think some Leaf fans need to give more time to his return to play out which started very well.

 

[HellasLEAF]

Matthews' Pittsburgh effort was abysmal.

Based on his skating alone you knew he was going to be largely ineffective night, independent of hat tricks scored, assists on the board and whatever else the highest paid player in the game ought to be doing. Lots of coasting, looping routes, a split second too late to get to any puck battle, pretty limited physical engagement. Probably the second most casual effort out there minus Alex Nylander.

Matthews looked busy defensively and got hit by the puck a lot but but largely disengaged. In the first Bryan Rust was digging for the puck at the top of the crease, Matthews didn't even put a stick on him but had body positioning and it was up to others to put out the fire. Completely ineffective on the PK burning time, energy and calories. He lost a breakaway footrace to Evgeni Malkin of all people, didn't exert an ounce of effort in the faceoff circle.

Offensively, it looked like he just tried to "stay open" by keeping well wide of any puck carrier. Threw grenade passes to Marner all night and completely deferred carrying the puck any distance into any kind of traffic. This is f'ing Pittsburgh in December, by the way, not Florida, Tampa, Boston and other typical ghosts that haunt in big games in the playoffs.

In short, the process was trash, the numbers were okay, but you can't hide behind excuses in the position that he's in. Mitch usually gets the bulk of blame for the dysfunction with the AM MM line, but the Leafs elevated Matthews status and he's just failed to deliver.

What about the other 6 games.

And he was nowhere as bad as you are claiming even in the loss away to a desperate for points, desperate to stick it to us Pittsburgh Penguins on the 2nd of two games.

 

[HellasLEAF]

I think it's been abundantly clear we are not going anywhere with this core.

Well not with that attitude they aren't.

 

[Buds17]

I sincerely doubt both this premise and also that the team would ever voluntarily find out with absolute certainty.

 

[Stephen]

What about the other 6 games.

And he was nowhere as bad as you are claiming even in the loss away to a desperate for points, desperate to stick it to us Pittsburgh Penguins on the 2nd of two games.

He was exactly as bad as I noted in real time. Go back and watch the game and find me another reason why this team lost to Pittsburgh of all teams.

Also let’s think about standards for a second. Matthews is the highest paid player in the game and ranks 45th in PPG average. For a guy at his level this season has been a pretty big disappointment, mixing in injuries, expectations and all.

 

[Confucius]

Since he was drafted the Leafs have hovered around the 10-16th best team in the NHL.

Hmmm records indicate otherwise
10_4-4-6-13-7-7-14

 

[Nineteen67]

Hmmm records indicate otherwise
10_4-4-6-13-7-7-14

Don’t forget the playoffs.

 

[Dekes For Days]

Since he was drafted the Leafs have hovered around the 10-16th best team in the NHL.

Since we finished last overall and drafted him, the Leafs have been the 3rd best team in the NHL.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

One

Since we finished last overall and drafted him, the Leafs have been the 3rd best team in the NHL.

One series win in that time span says no you're not.

 

[Dekes For Days]

One series win in that time span says no you're not.

No it doesn't. Interestingly, in 5 out of 8 of the years, we had to play one of the only two teams above us.

 

[Confucius]

Don’t forget the playoffs.

No they don’t count since half the teams in the league don’t even enter that tourney. Where if you get hot you’re golden, depends on which 4 teams out of the 16 you get to play, exciting though.

 

[Nineteen67]

No they don’t count since half the teams in the league don’t even enter that tourney. Where if you get hot you’re golden, exciting though.

I do, and that’s why I ranked them between 10-16.

 

[Nineteen67]

I think objectively the entire group tries harder when Matthews is missing. Now need to find some kind of way to get them to play like that when he is healthy.

He takes up 22 minutes of ice time which means someone can’t try harder while he’s on the ice.

 

[Confucius]

I do, and that’s why I rated them between 10-16.

I see, well we all look at it differently. If we only played the Atlantic division and the season ended with us having the best record, I couldn’t justify stating we are the best team inn the league. Since we only played 1/4 of the teams,

 

[Nineteen67]

I see, well we all look at it differently. If we only played the Atlantic division and the season ended with us having the best record, I couldn’t justify stating we are the best team inn the league. Since we only played 1/4 of the teams,

In that scenario you could pick them 1-4. When there are 16 teams you rank those teams. Going into the playoffs, in the Matthews era, I have ranked them anywhere from 10th 16th best team. A couple of years we knew they were the least likely playoff team to win the Cup.

 

[Dekes For Days]

A couple of years we knew they were the least likely playoff team to win the Cup.

That's never been true.