Classic Leafs.
The good news is that it only goes up from here. I was (and still am) in favour of Matthews getting the C because either he will rise to the occasion, or he will fail and that will be the completely undeniable evidence that this team does not work and that it's time to reset. You cannot be the highest paid player in the league and be a mercenary who doesn't lead. Simply doesn't work, when you're the best player on a team everyone is looking at you to lead them, and if Matthews can't lead, it's over. You can have an elite mercenary when there's already a strong leadership group in the room, but we probably have the weakest leaders in the league.
Solid chance this thread ages badly, but if it doesn't, then the Matthews captaincy failure is truly the beginning of the end.