Haven't mined the entire thread, but for my money, Matthews has a Bossy vibe to him. The release and the IQ demonstrate elite focus and skill. Sakic also comes to mind.
Now the dilemma comes in Matthews size and game management.
I don't speak for all Leafs fans, but I think to a person, we would like to see Matthews fit that classical Leafs primary center role in being physically dominant along with the production. Kopitar seems a decent comparison here? We know he's not going to physical like Lindros or Lemieux or even Sundin, but would like to see a little more resiliency in his play. We'd like to see it because we have in limited, short bursts.
The regular season stuff is nice. It's fantastic actually. Especially as we calculate all-time possibilities for the future. But I hope it isn't lost on those looking in on Toronto that we want Matthews' personal success over Cup glory.
Everything our fanbase does, is done in disproportionate measure: Gloat, complain, inspect, distort...Moreover in our enthusiasm, when for the first time in our franchise, our #1 overall pick (an exception) is a league leading player in any category (exception), award-winning (exception) and history-making (as exceptional as they come in Toronto).
Gilmour and Sundin and players like Mogilny to a lesser extent, of truly world-class talent have been few and far between...But we didn't draft them. Of those we drafted: Sittler, Salming, Clark, Damphousse to name a few, we had no such luck and good as they were, they weren't in annual comparative discussions with respect to any of the paragraph above's categories.
In perspective, very few players in Toronto score 100 points. How good has Matthews' been this season? The OG Leafs fans will get this quickly: William Nylander has 96 points and three games to play and his situation is quiet where in years' past, it would have been nigh-parade route worthy.
Unapologetically happy with what Matthews has turned into...Really, for the first time in our club's history.
