News Article: Auston Matthews - August 1st., Contract Crickets

[Arzak]

Pasta never even dropped his stick... he wasn't serious about anything.

Not the best example... use Mac or Crosby at least. Pasta looked terrified.

Yeah he was so terrified he skated next to Washington's bench and punched Wilson in the face

 

[therealkoho]

The most important wrist in Canada, and we get silence? Hmmmmm
If Vladdy's problem was a bad wrist, you would know.
You don't earn the best player in the league title by blocking shots as a center. It is admirable stat but Kerfoot could have done that. You pay 13M for a guy who scares the dmen on the other team, at the other end of the ice

Speaking of Kerfoot, a congratulations is in order, as he was recently married in the Lake district of the Okanagan

JT, MM, Bunts, Holl, Jake, Morgs, Colin Blackwell among others were all there. The world's 5th best player was nowhere to be seen. Iironically however, McJeebuzz the world's greatest player managed to attend Tyson Barries wedding a couple of weeks ago, and they're not even teammates anymore! Now that guy has some leadership skills.

 

[therealkoho]

That's incorrect.
The evidence for my position is what literally everybody who is around Matthews and would know him as a leader has said about his leadership.
The evidence for the contrasting position is absolutely nothing. Random, unsubstantiated claims on an internet message board from people who don't know.

One of those things that a great leader has to have is the ability to inspire those around you, so far the Leafs are 1-7 in the playoffs with 34!

 

[Dekes For Days]

Yes, that's the narrative I've mentioned, and yet he was 34 this year, do you call any line he is on a superline?

No, Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak was a superline, and that was where he played for over half a decade.
Yes, he played with others this past year, but his defensive metrics plummeted this past year.
His +/- remained high because he had a big offensive year on a historically dominant +128 team, in front of the best team goaltending performance in the cap era (maybe ever).

 

[Arzak]

No, Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak was a superline, and that was where he played for over half a decade.
Yes, he played with others this past year, but his defensive metrics plummeted this past year.
His +/- remained high because he had a big offensive year on a historically dominant +128 team, in front of the best team goaltending performance in the cap era (maybe ever).

I like how you just cut the parts of the post that don't suit you!

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[TD]Marner elevates everyone around them narrative vs Pasta is such a massive benefactor of a superline. Forget the fact Marchand and Bergeron got their best offensive seasons well past their statistical prime.[/TD]
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Can you see it in reverse with our players?

Funny how it's never Pasta elevating Marchand and Bergeron.


I already asked which metrics you're talking about, feel free to share them. The only defensive metric he sucked at is giveaways. If you try to go 1 on 1 you might lose the puck. Compare it to Marner who's going alone against the goalie and opts for a drop pass.

Pasta tends to lead the league in giveaways, that's the only indicator, but clearly, it's different for D to lose puck vs 13 game-winners last year (most since 99-00 season when Bure got 14).

 

[Nineteen67]

One of those things that a great leader has to have is the ability to inspire those around you, so far the Leafs are 1-7 in the playoffs with 34!

1-6 in playoffs
0-1 in the qualifying round.

 

[Dekes For Days]

First off Those people listed are not going to say anything against him as it would be a major scandel. Secondly we cannot take anything Keefe say because we all saw the one time Keefe criticized the players in the media he had to walk it back a few days later so we know he has no, integrity or freedom of speech.

These are just some of the examples, and they didn't have to say anything - they chose to. Finding arbitrary reasons to dismiss every contradicting statement from everybody who would actually know about his leadership in order to stick with a completely unsupported position based on feelings is obviously not an appropriate way to come to a conclusion.

Thirdly I would love to hear some examples of things that he does to lead.

You were given a bunch. His dominance and effort on the ice, at both ends. His daily habits, training, and the standards he sets. Having conversations with guys individually. Speaking up in the dressing room. Speaking up on the bench. Pushing guys to be better, with encouragement, correction, or strategizing. Helping people move on, improve, and not dwell on a bad game. Welcoming and integrating newcomers to the team. Celebrating the successes of teammates (even more than his own). Taking accountability. Dealing with the media and taking a lot of the focus and media pressure. Speaking with refs, and being a bridge between staff and players. Etc.

One of those things that a great leader has to have is the ability to inspire those around you, so far the Leafs are 1-7 in the playoffs with 34!

Team playoff outcomes are a result of a heck of a lot more than just ability to inspire. Some people here expect the outcome of a handful of games to tell them everything about everything, and they just don't.

 

[therealkoho]

I guess then he does inspire them to all ease their collective right feet off the pedal

 

[therealkoho]

1-6 in playoffs
0-1 in the qualifying round.

I guess I should've have said "post season series," which would've been more on point

 

[Dekes For Days]

I like how you just cut the parts of the post that don't suit you!

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[TD]Marner elevates everyone around them narrative vs Pasta is such a massive benefactor of a superline. Forget the fact Marchand and Bergeron got their best offensive seasons well past their statistical prime.[/TD]
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Can you see it in reverse with our players?
Funny how it's never Pasta elevating Marchand and Bergeron.

I didn't respond to that part because it had nothing to do with our discussion.
Pastrnak has elevated Marchand and Bergeron offensively too. It's mutually beneficial. But we were talking about defense, where Pastrnak had long been the beneficiary of playing primarily with the best defensive forward of a generation, one of the best defensive wingers in the league, one of the best defensemen in the league, and consistently elite goaltending to make people think he's better defensively than he is.

I already asked which metrics you're talking about, feel free to share them.

There are tons of defensive microstats that are locked behind paywalls, and many overall defensive metrics still struggle to separate source, but I don't think anybody is going to argue against the established defensive dominance of Bergeron, and you can even just take a rough look at how his on-ice xGA plummeted.

 

[Nineteen67]

I guess I should've have said "post season series," which would've been more on point

Strictly from a playoff winning percentage standpoint, it’s better to omit that year anyway.

 

[Racer88]

These are just some of the examples, and they didn't have to say anything - they chose to. Finding arbitrary reasons to dismiss every contradicting statement from everybody who would actually know about his leadership in order to stick with a completely unsupported position based on feelings is obviously not an appropriate way to come to a conclusion.

You were given a bunch. His dominance and effort on the ice, at both ends. His daily habits, training, and the standards he sets. Having conversations with guys individually. Speaking up in the dressing room. Speaking up on the bench. Pushing guys to be better, with encouragement, correction, or strategizing. Helping people move on, improve, and not dwell on a bad game. Welcoming and integrating newcomers to the team. Celebrating the successes of teammates (even more than his own). Taking accountability. Dealing with the media and taking a lot of the focus and media pressure. Speaking with refs, and being a bridge between staff and players. Etc.

Team playoff outcomes are a result of a heck of a lot more than just ability to inspire. Some people here expect the outcome of a handful of games to tell them everything about everything, and they just don't.

He was far from dominant this year especially against Florida

 

[Dekes For Days]

He was far from dominant this year especially against Florida

He had many moments of dominance this playoffs, even against Florida. Some just refuse to acknowledge the impact that a historically dominant goaltending performance had.
And regardless, every player has ups and downs, especially while playing injured.

 

[Stringer Bell]

I know the cap is going up etc. But even if it were a 3 year 13.5 term. Isn't there still a decent chance that after those 3 years (which is 4 years starting from now), that he isn't even worth 13.5 anymore? At that point we might be grateful to get out of a 13.5 mil cap hit.

 

[IPS]

He had many moments of dominance this playoffs, even against Florida. Some just refuse to acknowledge the impact that a historically dominant goaltending performance had.
And regardless, every player has ups and downs, especially while playing injured.

Pastrnak: 5 goals against Florida
Matthews: 0 goals against Florida

Where does the getting goalie'd excuse come in for Pasta?

 

[weems]

Matthews is an elite talent, an elite producer and is adaptable and can play a lot of different play styles. That's the good news. It's very good news. The bad news is Dubas wasted a number of years trying to support our stage fright guys with a bevvy of even smaller, less skilled, skilled guys going into hostile series. And by the time he got around to acquiring toughness, it was usually the window dressing variety, not on the same shift as our elite talent.

My hope is Treliving has a better sense of the game, better sense of group dynamics and this new brand of "snot" is really an understanding that every playoff series will have elements of a street fight and we need the well rounded support of players who will make every stand up a little taller and fend for themselves and teammates.

This was always my biggest gripe with the Dubas era.
I just didn't like the way we played the game and didn't think it was a sustainable blueprint to win 4 tough playoff series.
Too much east/west, circling back, hold possession at all costs and not enough north/south, chipping pucks to areas and winning 50/50 battles, firing pucks towards the net/crashing crease and overall just a low level of team intensity/physicality.

 

[Dekes For Days]

Pastrnak: 5 goals against Florida
Matthews: 0 goals against Florida

Where does the getting goalie'd excuse come in for Pasta?

Boston didn't get "goalie'd". They didn't even play against an NHL goalie for half the series.
And yet still Pastrnak only had 5 points in 7 games (tied for 7th on the team in points and tied for 8th on the team in P/GP), bled chances against, got outplayed while on the ice, and Boston lost in the first round to a team that placed 43 points below them. If our stars had a performance like Pastrnak did this playoffs, they'd be absolutely obliterated around here.

 

[IPS]

Boston didn't get "goalie'd". They didn't even play against an NHL goalie for half the series.
And yet still Pastrnak only had 5 points in 7 games (tied for 7th on the team in points and tied for 8th on the team in P/GP), bled chances against, got outplayed while on the ice, and Boston lost in the first round to a team that placed 43 points below them. If our stars had a performance like Pastrnak did this playoffs, they'd be absolutely obliterated around here.

Of course.

Pastrnak had 3 goals in 3 games against Bobrovsky. He didn't get goalie'd. Matthews' got goalie'd though with 0 goals in 5 games.

Your silly "goalie'd" excuse once again turns out to be complete bunk. Not even gonna bother with the other irrelevant drivel with your blatant attempt to try to steer the conversation elsewhere because you got proven wrong.

 

[Aashir]

Boston didn't get "goalie'd". They didn't even play against an NHL goalie for half the series.
And yet still Pastrnak only had 5 points in 7 games (tied for 7th on the team in points and tied for 8th on the team in P/GP), bled chances against, got outplayed while on the ice, and Boston lost in the first round to a team that placed 43 points below them. If our stars had a performance like Pastrnak did this playoffs, they'd be absolutely obliterated around here.

If our stars had pastrnak like performances, we’d have won that series

Matthews and Tavares didn’t score, Marner had 1 goal and Nylander had 2 goals

Game 2 was all the core 3’s fault. Nylander turned the puck over against a single forechecked and Samsonov let’s in a weak goal

Marner makes a low iq pass to Matthews who is allergic to contact and tries to flip the puck out instead of making the normal hockey play of taking a hit to make a play. Forsling scores

Pastrnak had 5 goals, Matthews Marner Nylander and Tavares had 3. Had our stars each finished like pastrnak we would’ve won that series

 

[Dekes For Days]

Pastrnak had 3 goals in 3 games against Bobrovsky. He didn't get goalie'd. Matthews' got goalie'd though with 0 goals in 5 games.
Your silly "goalie'd" excuse once again turns out to be complete bunk.

There's nothing "bunk" about acknowledging the goaltending impacts that exist in a series. Boston not being "goalie'd" by a non-NHL goalie and a few games of Bobrovsky coming off a month-long break doesn't change what happened in the Leaf series, or any other series.

And quite frankly, the fact that Boston didn't get "goalie'd" and Boston still lost to a team with 43 less points and Pastrnak still only had 5 points in 7 games and ranked 7th in points and 8th in P/GP on the team is more concerning than if they just got goalie'd.

If our stars had pastrnak like performances, we’d have won that series

Good to know that 5 points in 7 games, bleeding chances against, getting outplayed on the ice, and losing in the 1st round is now something to be applauded.

 

[Stephen]

A lot of playoff leadership and winning is myth-making and based on visible actions and made for TV performance. Darcy Tucker intense faces, a hard Gary Roberts forecheck. Wendel dropping the gloves after the McSorley hit. Clutch goals, game tying, game changing, game winning. Play under duress. And most importantly, actual winning games… it boils down to what you can see, what you can feel.

So in the absence of any behavioural examples or team success, how can anyone say our group has leadership abilities?

 

[Aashir]

Good to know that 5 points in 7 games, bleeding chances against, getting outplayed on the ice, and losing in the 1st round is now something to be applauded.

It’s not applauding, it’s comparing a bad performance to an even worse one, our guys were much worse than this pastrnak performance, had they even just been mediocre as him, we’d have won

Our guys got scored on in key moments so it’s not like they played amazing defensively either

 

[ACC1224]

It’s not applauding, it’s comparing a bad performance to an even worse one, our guys were much worse than this pastrnak performance, had they even just been mediocre as him, we’d have won

Our guys got scored on in key moments so it’s not like they played amazing defensively either

Some have been 'applauding' first round losses for years now.

 

[Dekes For Days]

It’s not applauding, it’s comparing a bad performance to an even worse one, our guys were much worse than this pastrnak performance

Our guys were not worse during this year's playoffs than Pastrnak was.

 

[Stephen]

It’s not applauding, it’s comparing a bad performance to an even worse one, our guys were much worse than this pastrnak performance, had they even just been mediocre as him, we’d have won

Our guys got scored on in key moments so it’s not like they played amazing defensively either

The entire Florida series was lost on a William Nylander giveaway, getting muscled off the puck at center ice and then the Marner to Matthews chip and flip play. It was 3-2 in the second period of Game 2 but the shock and awe meltdown and deer in headlights look told you the entire season was gone in 60 seconds.

Of course they had time to straighten the ship and it wasn’t actually lost in that moment. But the lack of hockey intangibles sealed their fate. And this is why their own fanbase dunks on them so much.