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Tribute Auston Matthews Discussion "the Beauty" Edition

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Matthews has been exceptional this season. While Tavares & Marner struggled early in the season, even when healthy, to produce anything positive at 5v5, Matthews and his line with Nylander & Johnsson were essentially carrying them team to be competitive under Babcock.

Obviously Andersen has been crucial to the Leafs winning many games this year, but I'd still venture that Matthews has been the MVP thus far. Leads the team in goals & points, and continues to come up with clutch plays when he's most needed. He's had a few rough patches, but has overall been more consistent than Andersen, Tavares, Marner, Rielly, Nylander, & Barrie. Great to see him improving defensively as well, he's really starting to come into his own as a superstar this year. I love it, and now that Marner/Tavares are heating up as well, this team is primed for a great run down the stretch.
 
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67Leafs67 said:
Matthews has been exceptional this season. While Tavares & Marner struggled early in the season, even when healthy, to produce anything positive at 5v5, Matthews and his line with Nylander & Johnsson were essentially carrying them team to be competitive under Babcock.

Obviously Andersen has been crucial to the Leafs winning many games this year, but I'd still venture that Matthews has been the MVP thus far. Leads the team in goals & points, and continues to come up with clutch plays when he's most needed. He's had a few rough patches, but has overall been more consistent than Andersen, Tavares, Marner, Rielly, Nylander, & Barrie. Great to see him improving defensively as well, he's really starting to come into his own as a superstar this year. I love it, and now that Marner/Tavares are heating up as well, this team is primed for a great run down the stretch.
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This narrative is getting old. 5x5 is not the whole game and jt and Marner, though not optimum were contributing just fine. The team could barely win without Marner playing.
That being said, nylander has played way better hockey with Jt and Matthews seems to be playing better with Marner. The line switch at best ends up as a net neutral for Marner and Jt but elevating AM and Nylander unlocks a lot of potential for this team. Nylander is playing waaaayyyy better and Matthew's now has a really strong chance for Rocket glory. Net net, the team is better right now. I was against splitting WN and AM up because I was worried that Willy would be put in a situation where he lost confidence. The team needs him to be good. Happy he is succeeding but a lot of it has to do with the guys you claim were being carried.
 
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Notsince67 said:
This narrative is getting old. 5x5 is not the whole game and jt and Marner, though not optimum were contributing just fine. The team could barely win without Marner playing.
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Yeah, 5v5 isn't the whole game, but for the Leafs this season it has been 81% of the game for them. You don't spend a whole lot of time in 6v5, 4v4, 5v4, 4v5, etc, situations overall. Of the 270 goals in Leafs games this year, 67% have occurred at 5v5. So yeah, 5v5 play is pretty important, and there was a long stretch of games where Marner & Tavares were both bad at 5v5. Before Keefe took over, Marner & Tavares had 4 points each at 5v5. In contrast, Matthews & Nylander had combined for 29 over that time span. At a rate level, they were 15th & 16th on the team production wise, with 1.06 and 1.05 points/60. In contrast, Matthews & Nylander were 2nd & 3rd on the team, at 2.74 and 2.38, respectively.

Marner had a 48% xGF, and Tavares 46%. Marner had 44% of high danger chances, and Tavares 47%. Their on-ice contributions during the part that takes up 80% of the game were poor by just average standards, let alone, the standards you should hold your top line to. I'm sorry, but if those numbers are "just fine"...you're not going to win many hockey games. They were decent on the PP, with 12 points between them, but it's not like they were doing so great they made up for their poor 5v5 play. The Leafs powerplay was kind of ass before Keefe came along, it's not like it was some huge gamebreaker keeping them winning.

Notsince67 said:
That being said, nylander has played way better hockey with Jt and Matthews seems to be playing better with Marner. The line switch at best ends up as a net neutral for Marner and Jt but elevating AM and Nylander unlocks a lot of potential for this team. Nylander is playing waaaayyyy better and Matthew's now has a really strong chance for Rocket glory. Net net, the team is better right now. I was against splitting WN and AM up because I was worried that Willy would be put in a situation where he lost confidence. The team needs him to be good. Happy he is succeeding but a lot of it has to do with the guys you claim were being carried.
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I'd agree with most of what you say here. Granted, it has only been small samples, but I do think that the Marner/Matthews & Nylander/Tavares combinations make more sense, and so far (again, in small samples), have produced better results. I wouldn't go so far as to say Nylander is playing "waaaayyyy better"...he's been pretty amazing all season long, as impressive as his last few games have been. Aside from a recent dip, Matthews has been on a torrid goal scoring pace all season, regardless of whether Marner or Nylander is on his right side.

Not sure where you're getting the idea that I said Matthews was carrying anybody? I did say that his line was essentially "carrying" the Leafs, intended in a hyperbolic fashion, as really, for a long stretch of games, they were the only line consistently making positive contributions on a night to night basis. But I never said that Matthews was carrying Nylander, Johnsson, or both, or anybody else for that matter.
 
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LeafsNation75 said:
Don't look now but Matthews is now 2nd in goals with 26 and is only behind 3 behind Pastrnak. So he's still has a legit chance at the Rocket Richard Trophy and scoring at least 50 goals.
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Pastrnak has 4 goals in his last 13 and Matthews is on a hot streak so the swap might happen sooner than later.

However, Pastrnak plays with Marchand and Bergeron so you can't count out video game like streaks of mass goals that catapult him back into the lead.

Will be a fun race to watch.
 
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Havoc said:
Pastrnak has 4 goals in his last 13 and Matthews is on a hot streak so the swap might happen sooner than later.

However, Pastrnak plays with Marchand and Bergeron so you can't count out video game like streaks of mass goals that catapult him back into the lead.

Will be a fun race to watch.
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The bolded is often forgotten, he plays on a video game line.
 
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LeafsNation75 said:
Don't look now but Matthews is now 2nd in goals with 26 and is only behind 3 behind Pastrnak. So he's still has a legit chance at the Rocket Richard Trophy and scoring at least 50 goals.
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If healthy he'll catch Pasta for sure imo. Pasta is undoubtedly on a tear right now, but Matty has closed a lot of ground on him in the last couple of weeks. I think Pasta himself wouldn't bet on him staying ahead of Matthews in the goal department. Would be pretty cool to have a Rocket Richard winner on the team
 
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DanM said:
The bolded is often forgotten, he plays on a video game line.
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Matthews has also been unlucky because he's only had 1 career hat trick and how many 2 goal games he had since? I remember on opening night this season he had 2 goals and was about to get his 3rd into the empty net, however he got taken down at the last possible second.
 
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Nylander88 said:
If healthy he'll catch Pasta for sure imo. Pasta is undoubtedly on a tear right now, but Matty has closed a lot of ground on him in the last couple of weeks. I think Pasta himself wouldn't bet on him staying ahead of Matthews in the goal department. Would be pretty cool to have a Rocket Richard winner on the team
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Personally speaking I rather see Matthews get at least 50 goals before winning the Rocket, because that would mean the Leafs are winning. Plus as we have seen last season you can have a player score 50 goals and they might not win the award.
 
Does Matthews break 50 goals this year ? 41 games he has 27. And how many does he end up with?
 
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50+ goals and 100+ points, he's gonna get there.

I can't bitch about his contract anymore when he's like this, he's worth it.
 
It’s a been a rough holiday for quite a few “leaf fans” who have gone silent during the most exciting stretch of the year............

right now matthews is on pace for 54 goals and 96 pts.

he is at ppg over his first 253 games. Very few have done that.

he is second in the league in goals despite multiple injuries. And scores at the EXACT same goals per game rate as Ovy. The greatest goal scorer ever. Over the same span.

incredible talent being unleashed.
 
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Stephen said:
What's nice is this feels like a massive response to the Matthews vs Eichel discussion prior to our last meeting with the Sabres. Leafs have taken off like a rocket along with Matthews production and the Sabres are free falling.
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but I was told by leaf fans that eichel had surpassed Matthews. How could this be?
 
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