He's just a career loser. One career series win and it took Vasi imploding to do it
He never won a series in junior, either. He just doesn't get the job done
He did the job of a bottom 6 grinder, let's all applaud him
Embarrassing take. We can find league minimum players to shy away from body contact, accidentally block the odd shot and take shots without scoring. Lmao.
When you do Kampf stuff. You didn’t do anything.
Sorry, let me explain to those in the back:
Matthews led the team in shots, scoring chances, hits, blocked shots.
2nd on the team in takeaways and face-offs won.
The only thing he didn't do was score.
As I have said a million times in a myriad of Nylander threads, I expect compete and effort.
This was not a night Matthews didn't compete or put in the work, at both ends of the ice.
In fact, over the 5 games, he led the team in shots, scoring chances, blocked shots.
Only Acciari (36) and Schenn (20) had more hits than Matthews (19).
Only Ryan O'Reilly (9) had more takeaways than Matthews (7).
In terms of high danger chances for, Tavares with 20 followed by Matthews with 16. Nobody else on the team had more than 9.
All this with an abysmal game 3.
Of the many problems the Leafs had this series, Matthews' compete and effort were near the bottom of the list.
His abysmal conversion rate was definitely a major contributing factor.
Also, a gentle reminder that he absolutely dominated everywhere other than the scoreboard while being marked by Barkov (you know that Selke winner guy).
Barkov ended the series with 32 total points, 15 shots. His entire focus the whole series was to shut Matthews down and he still needed Bob playing otherwordly plus 3 posts.
Is this sufficient and acceptable by the star player?
No.
It's also a sign that this isn't anywhere near the problem for this team and any reactionary calls for his head are just incredibly stupid and shortsighted.
Then again, that aptly describes a huge proportion of Leafs "fans".