Player Discussion Auston Matthews (Captain Edition)

[yubbers]

It's clear he can't take over any game that matters. Healthy or not.
It's a bummer. But we have more than enough data to say that with conviction now.

 

[Larcos_Unal]

Well, Exhibit A to my detractors.

THAT’s the dynamic, two-way force I recall when I say he has regressed.

That player on this team and the series might be over.

#ShaveTheStache

Are you implying that Matthews needs a change in order to reverse his luck?
I'd say a shaved head, full beard and/or shave the mustache and never ever allow it to return.

 

[ITM]

Are you implying that Matthews needs a change in order to reverse his luck?
I'd say a shaved head, full beard and/or shave the mustache and never ever allow it to return.

You're definitely picking up what I'm putting down.

I confess, Joe Thorton's broom of a beard kind of weirded me out on that look. But if the fountain of youth is about looking good/feeling good, heck, Pablo needs to get a hair system and where it under the bucket just for games. No one needs to know. Just return that Clark Kent looking unit that we drafted and get us to the Conference Finals.

 

[Antropovsky]

FIFY

I figured out the acronym.

 

[Antropovsky]

Berube admitted that they arent getting enough from some players.

Groundhog day.

 

[ToneDog]

Brady has been golfing for the past week and still has as many goals as our $24+m Dynamic Duo in 4 fewer payoff games. Look for a Matty goal tomorrow or it could be curtains for this core soon.

 

[ToneDog]

Berube admitted that they arent getting enough from some players.

Groundhog day.

He's clearly referring to Jarnkrok, McMann, Lorentz, Holmberg and Laughton.

 

[ITM]

Berube admitted that they arent getting enough from some players.

Groundhog day.

And adding that a hit on our player (i.e. Marner) by the opposition (i.e. Kulikov) was worse than the hit that punished Domi.

Groundhog Day again.

Marchand must have something on Bettman.

 

[yubbers]

He's clearly referring to Jarnkrok, McMann, Lorentz, Holmberg and Laughton.

Laughton and Lorentz have been fine in their roles

 

[ruaware41]

Matthews is clearly not worth his contract in the post season. A prime Lars Eller is worth at most $5 million in today's NHL. Matthews is offering nothing more than that this post season except a few more points with much more powerplay time. They need to trade him if they can but certainly not re-sign him.

 

[Stephen]

Berube admitted that they arent getting enough from some players.

Groundhog day.

These tertiary scoring bums.

 

[Kiwi]

Matthew's hasn't been good enough.
As a leader or a player

That isn't good but he still has a chance to redeem himself
This is his opportunity to put the team on his back and carry them through this series

No excuses, that's what great players do, that's what he has to do to be seen as a great player and leader

I hope he has it in him

 

[ITM]

Didn't he play with Willy then?

I think you’re right.

 

[Stephen]

Matthew's hasn't been good enough.
As a leader or a player

That isn't good but he still has a chance to redeem himself
This is his opportunity to put the team on his back and carry them through this series

No excuses, that's what great players do, that's what he has to do to be seen as a great player and leader

I hope he has it in him

If he was honest about it, it would be interesting to see what percentage effort level he would assign to the long weekend hunting for goal 70, the games he played for Team USA in the Four Nations and the Florida series. You’d think he would be most energized to be so close to an ECF and chip away at his own playoff legacy.

 

[Lightsol]

The big fix is very simple. If Matthews after game 4 still refuses to shoot, you need to get him off lines 1 and 2 and off the power play, immediately. Because we're now at the point where Florida is more concerned about shots from Knies and Marner than Matthews, and that is ridiculous. Either Matthews starts shooting, or if he physically can't, he needs to be down the lineup so he's not destroying the offense because of it.

 

[Ho Lee Mackinaw]

Does anything change if the Leafs were more forthcoming with just what is going on with him?

They sat him out of the morning skate, there is talk of him getting a shot before every game. Something is obviously wrong, but all we as fans have is speculation.

If it turns out that he has a pretty serious injury and is trying to tough it out does it change anyone's mind about him?

Good question. I think it would - at least to some degree. If the Leafs would acknowledge that he is banged up but say that he has been sacrificing his body all season and playing through it to ensure the Leafs got the division win, and is now gutting it out in the playoffs because he loves the city and team, I think it would go a long way.

I realize in the playoffs teams don't say things like that. But obviously, if the fan base knows he's injured so does the opposing team. Putting a positive spin on it would probably lessen the criticism from the fans and media, and not give away any info to opposing teams they don't already have.

Having said that, it doesn't address the history of playoff ineffectiveness.

 

[mikeyz]

I am so envious watching McDavid in this game 4 right now.

Edmonton has no idea how lucky they are having a captain that leaves it all on the ice every playoff game. I wonder if us as Leaf fans will eventually feel that way about our captain at some point.

 

[yubbers]

I am so envious watching McDavid in this game 4 right now.

Edmonton has no idea how lucky they are having a captain that leaves it all on the ice every playoff game. I wonder if us as Leaf feel that way about our captain at some point.

Not with AM it appears. His legacy basically rides on the next 3 games.

And I have almost zero confidence he'll do anything worthwhile

 

[Tak7]

I just think it is ridiculous. There is a thread on the main NHL forum, a thread on the cup forum, and a thread here trashing a guy who is elite defensively, 10 points in the post season, dominant in faceoff, etc as if he has done nothing.

Do we need him to score some goals? Yes. His goalscoring is clearly off and has been all season though.

Reality is, people want to hate him and the team, even our own fans. Every win is a fluke and every loss is proof with this team. Tiring. Reminder we are 2-2 in a series against the cup champs that most had us getting brushed aside in

I promise you it's not that complicated - fans want to win.

And given the way this roster is constructed, this team does not win unless 34 scores, and most fans know that.

It's that simple.

 

[png57]

f*** the defence and f*** the faceoffs

I seriously don't care if my teams superstars are good defensively, that can be the depths job. If our stars are gonna kill their offence for 'defence' then it's a net negative for the team. They won't be out there beating the goalie and causing him to lose confidence/overthink allowing the lesser depth pieces to produce. It's not a coincedence that we scored 5 when nylander was leading the charge with 2 goals.

But is it a coincedence that our players are elite defensively and we are out in round 1? Mark stone had to be demoted to 3rd best player on his team to win a cup. Bergeron was getting outplayed by his own 2C in both finals runs.

No one wants to hate auston matthews, he is making it impossible to like him though. There are two ways for matthews to have people like him:

1. Show the f*** up. Not on defence, but as an offensive player. Be the best player in the game, score a few goals and grab a few assists. I don't care about injuries everyone is hurt this time of year

2. Go back in time to 2016 and tell himself not to practice. He won't be as good and we won't draft him first overall

As for the reminder: it's irrelevant, we were up 2-0 and just needed one win over the next two to essentially close out the series. He couldn't close it out (again) in game 3 and was a no show in game 4 (big surprise).

I don't think there's been a single playoff game this year where I could say "Wow 34 was the best player on the ice, he was unstoppable"

It's not good enough from him and he shouldn't hide behind his injury excuses or linemates for it.

Couldn't agree more. I'm a fan of his defensive prowess but the problem is he's not paid to play like Bergeron! He should be tearing up the league in goals DURING THE POSTSEASON like other $10M+ players who've scored enough to help their team to long playoff runs for f**k's sake!

 

[Nineteen67]

Couldn't agree more. I'm a fan of his defensive prowess but the problem is he's not paid to play like Bergeron! He should be tearing up the league in goals DURING THE POSTSEASON like other $10M+ players who've scored enough to help their team to long playoff runs for f**k's sake!

Dont you wish he was as good as Bergeron.

 

[Tak7]

Couldn't agree more. I'm a fan of his defensive prowess but the problem is he's not paid to play like Bergeron! He should be tearing up the league in goals DURING THE POSTSEASON like other $10M+ players who've scored enough to help their team to long playoff runs for f**k's sake!

Never mind the $10m+ players - there's lesser players around the league who are scoring at the same or better clip than him.

Brett Howden, Brendan Duhaime, Nathan Walker, Marcus Foligno, Logan Stankoven, Nate Schmidt (D), Shayne Gostisbehere (D), Tomas Harley (D), Nino Neiderreter, and Connor Brown are just some names of guys that have scored the same, or more, playoff goals this season as Matthews has scored since the 2023 Tampa series.

He's struggling to outproduce some Dmen, let alone other $10+m players.

 

[HockeyVirus]

I promise you it's not that complicated - fans want to win.

And given the way this roster is constructed, this team does not win unless 34 scores, and most fans know that.

It's that simple.

What does it matter if he is scoring the goal or setting up a goal? No one has been able to explain that to me. Production is production.

The way he is talked about is like he has 2 points in 12 games

 

[centipede2233]

The only thing that never changed under the Shanaplan is the core. Once this core fails again, hoping changes will be made, Shanna and marner first to go.

Who knew Matthew’s would be a worse captain then tavernas but here we are

 

[mydnyte]

I was thinking back to pre-draft Matthews and remember that he was hurt a few times his draft season, and one of those is likely the same injury he has now. of the 2, i think its this one (back injury that kept him out a few weeks) ...the other, he went headfirst into the boards, so, likely concussion and/or neck injury, but those are less likely to impact his overall play, like the back injury would.