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Auston Matthews Discussion Thread

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7even said:
You know, having watched this guy for awhile now, what's always struck me about Matthews is that, other than his shot mechanics which are world class, he's a fairly ordinary player. What I mean is, if you look at all the ways a player can be a superstar, there's nothing that really jumps out at you. He's not a dangler like Kane or Datsyuk, he's not a physical force like Eric Lindros, he doesn't have the vision of Crosby, he's not a one timer god like Stamkos, he's not a PP monster like Kovy, he doesn't have the speed of MacKinnon. He just...outplays you, and then puts the puck in the net. Whereas a guy like McDavid breaks the game, Matthews plays the same game as everyone else, he's just better at it than you are. It's unusual.
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His hands are stupid good and he literally wins every puck battle. Like he just skates to the guy and takes the puck and there's nothing they can do about it.
 
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TheBigFour said:
Matthews so far is:
tied with Marner for 1st for 5on5 points
second in the league in EVP, one behind mcdavid
leads the league in goals
Top 5 in EVP/60 in the league (higher than mcdavid and Drai)

:thumbu:
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Matthews is way better Draisaitl. He is the best goal scorer in the NHL.
 
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If injuries don't get him, I'm really curious to see what his game is like through his 30s. I can see his power game coming through even more once he loses a little speed.
 
Marshy said:
So happy we have him. We are so very lucky.

I had high hopes and he's surpassed them. I just hope he's here for 10 more years.
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A strong motivator to win some playoff rounds. Players like him want to win. If we can have some postseason success, especially a Cup; I'm sure the sales job to lock him up for his career (along with a future C on his jersey) would be far easier.
 
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Volcanologist said:
Feels like he's going to win some hardware this season, doesn't it? Awesome first 1/3 of the year.
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Besides the major awards like the Hart and Rocket Richard, I think he might also win the Lady Byng. Last year he was 2nd in the voting to Nathan MacKinnon and besides his 14 goals, so far this season he's only had 2:00 penalty minutes.
 
Hockey Crazy said:
His hands are stupid good and he literally wins every puck battle. Like he just skates to the guy and takes the puck and there's nothing they can do about it.
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His catch and release shot gives him more versatility than a booming one-timer (which he's building on). If he perfects that one-timer, then there's no stopping him on the PP. Other than that, like you mentioned, he steals pucks and protects it better than anyone in the league since he can leverage his skills, skating, and physique. Plus he's able to get a quick wrist shot off from anywhere, especially because he can oftentimes flip1v1 situations to his favour by using defenders as screens. He's multi-faceted and if his shot wasn't going in as much, he'd have a couple more rebound assists.
 
LeafsNation75 said:
They will say there should it's an asterisk because the North Division teams are horrible at defending. So I hope Matthews gets 50 in 50 just to see them have that meltdown.
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Always remember the North Division is clearly much better than the Pacific division that McDavid and Draisaitl won their Harts in.
 
zeke said:
Always remember the North Division is clearly much better than the Pacific division that McDavid and Draisaitl won their Harts in.
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In fairness they weren't limited to only playing their division though
 
zeke said:
Always remember the North Division is clearly much better than the Pacific division that McDavid and Draisaitl won their Harts in.
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Assuming McDavid or Draisaitl win the Art Ross this season I wonder if anyone will claim there should be an asterisk, because I'm sure they will if Matthews wins the Rocket Richard.
 
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Stephen said:
I actually see it a little differently. That he's a Lindros sized player who can dangle and stick check, has the one time touch of a Stamkos and an arsenal built on unreal shot mechanics (wrist, curl, snap), and while he's never had top end speed it looks like he's able to cover 200 feet of ice better than he's ever been able to before. He's not a playmaker in the traditional sense, like why do we want a guy who scores every game to pass off a chance, but we've seen him make unreal passing plays over the course of his career which can only be done if one has elite vision. He's a Leaf player who feels like he has no ceiling.
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I think he's a terrific player, probably will go down as the best Leaf ever. But you see it over and over again where he scores not off the back of a really flashy move, not because he cruises around defenders wide, not because he bowls people over, but because he puts himself into a space and simply executes on very small margins.

If I could name one Matthews goal emblematic of what I'm getting at, I think of his OT winner in the centennial classic. Cuts to the net, controls the puck off the board with literally the most economy of motion possible, and backhands it into a space players frankly do not score on. There's no real flash on that goal, nobody got embarrassed, it's just him outplaying the Wings and executing flawlessly a chance very few players can actually execute on. It's like he's got, elite fundamentals. That's what I think is most impressive about him.
 
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