Auston Matthews 69 goals in 81 games, most goals scored since Lemieux in 1995-96

[Rob Brown]

His empty net goals recently have been pretty unimpressive as it is - empty net goal merchants are meh. If he keeps this up I don’t think anyone will be impressed at his final goal total.

Your takes just keep getting worse and worse.

 

[JukofYork]

Matthews has only 2 empty net goals all season. Two….


2…..ummm yeah.

Ya but honestly that was actually pretty nice. he fought and dangled guys at his blue line and still shot it in. It wasnt really a typical fire and shoot.

 

[34]

Your takes just keep getting worse and worse.

He obviously did not check the stats before he posted to see that there are only 2 empty net goals. On top of that, the one tonight was a very elite defensive play to get that goal. Very impressive.

 

[Video Nasty]

What are you taking about? Of course Matthews has earned the benefit of the doubt, from every fan of the league.

No one has multiple 60 goal seasons in about 30 years. 30 years, that’s older than a lot of posters in this thread. Except Matthews.

Of course he would have hit 60 in the Covid shortened season. That season was his coming out party, and he was robbed.

He’ll get 3 legit 60 goal seasons, but he was robbed of it that year.

Guy is just on another level and you haven’t caught on yet

I guess you missed a mere few posts later where I thought about what The90 said, admitted I was wrong, and posted it for all to read.

 

[Strangle]

I guess you missed a mere few posts later where I thought about what The90 said, admitted I was wrong, and posted it for all to read.

Ya I must have

 

[Sypher04]

Anyone using empty netters to try to minimize Matthews is an utter donkey. He has 2 all season, and only 10 in his entire career.

Ovechkin by comparison has 57.

 

[AvroArrow]

Anyone using empty netters to try to minimize Matthews is an utter donkey. He has 2 all season, and only 10 in his entire career.

Ovechkin by comparison has 57.

The empty net goal last night was actually pretty impressive, he made some nice defensive plays and good stick work to get that puck in the net. But yeah 2 empty net goals, still scored 60 without em.

 

[All Mod Cons]

He's no Tim Stutzle, but he seems to be growing on people.

 

[All Mod Cons]

What would shut up a lot of naysayers is if Matthews went on a crazy streak in the playoffs and potted a bunch of goals that helped his team make it far. I'm hoping he does eventually.

No it wouldn’t.

 

[ijuka]

His empty net goals recently have been pretty unimpressive as it is - empty net goal merchants are meh. If he keeps this up I don’t think anyone will be impressed at his final goal total.

Was his empty net goal unimpressive? I thought that it was more impressive than his "proper" goal in this match. Am I wrong?

 

[Duder54]

What would shut up a lot of naysayers is if Matthews went on a crazy streak in the playoffs and potted a bunch of goals that helped his team make it far. I'm hoping he does eventually.

You’d like to think so, but it wouldn’t change a thing. Connor McDavid has put up 53 points in 28 playoff games the past two seasons and he’s still a bum according to half the posters on this forum.

 

[Peasy]

His empty net goals recently have been pretty unimpressive as it is - empty net goal merchants are meh. If he keeps this up I don’t think anyone will be impressed at his final goal total.

Man is such an empty net goal scoring merchant that he cant even break the top 25 this season for empty net goals! Insane.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Anyone using empty netters to try to minimize Matthews is an utter donkey. He has 2 all season, and only 10 in his entire career.

Ovechkin by comparison has 57.

Gretzky had 56, and I don't see anyone dinging him for it. Goals are goals, someone has to score them.

Then again, if empty-net goals are really some diminishing factor: here's all the 60+ goal seasons where the player had 0 ENGs in the total.

Brett Hull - 86 in 1990-91
Phil Esposito - 76 in 1970-71
Brett Hull - 72 in 1989-90
Brett Hull - 70 in 1991-92
Mike Bossy - 69 in 1978-79
Reggie Leach - 61 in 1975-76
Mike Bossy - 60 in 1982-83
Guy Lafleur - 60 in 1977-78
Steve Shutt - 60 in 1976-77

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Matthews is starting to heat up again, just in time for the playoffs.

 

[AvroArrow]

Ehh, why do you say that? The advanced stats show he's one of the luckier guys in the league.

If we look at all the games where he didn't get lucky and ignore the games where he did get lucky, Matthews actually has 0 goals and assists on the year !

 

[The90]

Maybe he’ll empty net his way to 70

Yeah, I was thinking the same Timmy stu only needs 1 more point to reach 70 this year. Wonder if it’ll be a goal or assist?

Edit: didn’t realize this was actually a Matthews goal thread/ he’s only 7 back of Stutzle’s point totals, with only goals lol

 

[goldnblack]

The Marcel Dionne of our time

 

[Judas Tavares]

When Ovechkin scores an empty net goal: "Great job darling, you earned it sweetie. Score all the empty netters you like."

When Matthews scores an empty netter: "Doesn't count. He's an empty net merchant, a fraud. In fact, they should count as a minus on his goal total."

 

[nturn06]

View attachment 844956

In this thread:

• When McDavid scores an empty-netter, only goals put behind a goalie should count.
• When AM scores an empty-netter, all goal counts.

All this discussion about emptynetters was started by a Leafs fan trying to argue that McD basically scored 60 goals last season.

 

[TheDoldrums]

The Marcel Dionne of our time

dionne never lead the league in goals and matthews is collecting his 3rd rocket in 4 years, nah

 

[Golden_Jet]

Edmonton has 1,777. Toronto has 1,715.

Oilers have had 62 more PP than Toronto since 2016-17.

So that would work out to about 2 more PP goals a year.

 

[SkinsFan09]

His empty net goals recently have been pretty unimpressive as it is - empty net goal merchants are meh. If he keeps this up I don’t think anyone will be impressed at his final goal total.

Gretzky was No. 1 in ENG until recently so guess he was a merchant.

What year was this for Ovechkin?

The year COVID stopped the season Matthews had 47 in 70 GP and Ovechkin had 48 in 68 GP. Both of them could have gotten hot and made a run at 60.

 

[pcruz]

What I find interesting is that through the first half of the year the leafs won as many games whether Matthews scored or not, but that completely changed after that.

Stayed consistent and it paid off.

This is completely incorrect.

The first half of the season Toronto had absolutely atrocious goaltending and only won games because of the efforts of Matthews and Nylander, who normally alternated great games.

Matthews has almost all of his goals in tight situations:

Jamie Maclennan said it on the radio a couple weeks back - one of his buddies runs an advanced stats site and they track goals scored either down by a goal, tied, or up by 1.

Almost all of Matthews' goals fall into those categories.

Which makes almost all of his goals crucial to the success of the team.

Very rarely has he scored the 5th goal of a blowout, or empty net goals.


Also, he had scored almost 1/4 of the team's goals this year, despite still ranking in the 50s of players' power play time on ice.

 

[Dr Pepper]

This is completely incorrect.

The first half of the season Toronto had absolutely atrocious goaltending and only won games because of the efforts of Matthews and Nylander, who normally alternated great games.

Matthews has almost all of his goals in tight situations:

Jamie Maclennan said it on the radio a couple weeks back - one of his buddies runs an advanced stats site and they track goals scored either down by a goal, tied, or up by 1.

Almost all of Matthews' goals fall into those categories.

Which makes almost all of his goals crucial to the success of the team.

Very rarely has he scored the 5th goal of a blowout, or empty net goals.


Also, he had scored almost 1/4 of the team's goals this year, despite still ranking in the 50s of players' power play time on ice.

Is there a website that tracks the opposite of empty netters? Goals that are scored by the attacking team, with their own goalie pulled?

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

Can't tell who scored the goals but I bet Matthews probably has at least half of Toronto's league-leading nine goals at 6 on 5.....I'm assuming most of these are late in the game, although there are probably some "delayed penalty" goals mixed in there as well.

I was at the Columbus game where Matthews scored twice with the extra attacker, and even at that point I think he'd already had like 3 or 4 game tying goals on the season.

 

[Sypher04]

Gretzky had 56, and I don't see anyone dinging him for it. Goals are goals, someone has to score them.

Then again, if empty-net goals are really some diminishing factor: here's all the 60+ goal seasons where the player had 0 ENGs in the total.

Brett Hull - 86 in 1990-91
Phil Esposito - 76 in 1970-71
Brett Hull - 72 in 1989-90
Brett Hull - 70 in 1991-92
Mike Bossy - 69 in 1978-79
Reggie Leach - 61 in 1975-76
Mike Bossy - 60 in 1982-83
Guy Lafleur - 60 in 1977-78
Steve Shutt - 60 in 1976-77

Exactly, trying to drag someone down over empty net goals is ridiculous. Especially when we are talking about the best goalscorers of entire generations.