Is Matthews the worst playoff performer ever?

[Action Jackson]

He is just like his idol Joe Thornton absolute garbage in the playoffs and no heart to win

 

[Bond]

Sure doesn’t seem to be able to score when it matters. Him and Hellebuyck sure struggle

 

[FerrisRox]

All-time Leaf playoff points leader.
77 pts in 60 games!
Doug "Killer" Gilmour. Played only 6 seasons with the leafs but was incredible.
Played with

Gilmour played four full seasons in Toronto and posted those 77 points, and 60 games*, in just four playoffs with the Leafs. But, to correct you, its 52 games, not 60.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

“He’s winning faceoffs and playing good defense.”

$13,250,000 per season to do that?

 

[The Shadow]

$13 plus million a year well spent

Think of all the hand bags he can buy with that

 

[MikeS24]

I don't even think he's the biggest disappearing act on his team.

Marner more obviously shies away from the physical, avoids the high traffic areas and wilts under the spotlight even more than Matthews does.

I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere down the line the Auston Matthews delivered in the post season. I would be astonished if Marner ever did. He's a coward and has no interest in paying the price to play playoff hockey.

I would rank Marner ahead in playoff performance and I have seen almost all of their playoff games the past 7 years.

 

[MikeS24]

For years, all we heard during those Matthews versus Draisaitl or Matthews versus Mackinnon debates was that his goal scoring puts him above them, even though they're getting more points than him. "Best goal scorer in the league" was his entire argument for being on their level (or above).

Now that he's not scoring goals, suddenly points seem to matter more than goals.

This 100%. I remember all of those threads. Always pointed to goals having more of a weight.

 

[MikeS24]

Pretty sure he has been able to score goals since this hit..........just not in the playoffs.
Like other leaf fans, time to call a spade a spade.....
It's not that he hasn't been an ok playoff performer, but just ok...........and doesn't seem to elevate his game when needed.

He is the highest paid guy on the team................that has responsibility. He will be the 1st to say he has to score goals.
If he is injured, sit him.....so no excuses.

I think he had 10 or 11 goals in the last 17 games before the playoffs. THat's pretty good

 

[MikeS24]

TBH I think Marner is worse than Matthews for playoff production.

With that said, it is noticeable. I found in the Ottawa series that I was much more worried when the Nylander line was on than when the Matthews line was on. Matthews had multiple chances to bury the Sens - including in the OTs - and just hit posts or whiffed wide. 2G in 6 GP isn't nothing but it's also not great for a guy who is a threat for 60 in the regular season.

Well, Maurice agrees with you. He changed Barkov to the Nylander line

 

[Evilhomer]

Shouldn't there be an award for dumbest thread ever? I nominate this one. Matthews basically dominates every shift he is on the ice, whether he scores or not. Any Leafs fan who criticizes this guy is clearly not old enough to remember some of the legendary centres the Leafs have had over the years....

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Hellebuyck ?


There was a player and I may be generalizing this too much, but mostly in the 90s and a bit into the 2000s who was a rather solid regular season player, but f***ing disappeared as soon as the playoffs started, probably because he wasn't getting paid anymore.

I'm thinking Yashin, but I think there was another.

 

[BLONG7]

It's his shot that's suffering, he can do everything else just fine.

Also why play our captain and best player if he can play through injury ? New to hockey ?

I think he had 10 or 11 goals in the last 17 games before the playoffs. THat's pretty good

Could be.............it's the playoffs when he hits a wall..........he takes abuse from many, including his own fans...........it's on him to change the narrative.

 

[NVious]

Shouldn't there be an award for dumbest thread ever? I nominate this one. Matthews basically dominates every shift he is on the ice, whether he scores or not. Any Leafs fan who criticizes this guy is clearly not old enough to remember some of the legendary centres the Leafs have had over the years....

Name all the players who have bigger dropoffs than Matthews.

Funny you mention all time Leafs because Matthews isn't even top 10 for g/g in the playoffs for the Leafs, this is a guy who is on a pretty easy path to top 10 all time goal scorer and he isn't even top 10 for the Leafs in goals per game come playoff time.

For regular season play he ranks 5th all time in goals per game.
For playoff play he ranks 85th all time in goals per game.

If you want to argue semantics like technically Aki Berg is worse than him, you can do that (except that's not what this thread is getting at, nobody thinks some 4th line/3rd pairing D are "better" than Matthews). But when you consider his salary, team's talent level, season accomplishments vs playoff accomplishments, he legitimately might experience the greatest dropoff season to post season of any player in NHL history.

 

[All Mod Cons]

Gotta be Hellebuyck right?

 

[RussianBum86]

Hellebuyck traded for Matthews. Can Matthews score on Hellebuyck in the playoffs to determine the biggest choker.

 

[Haj]

There was a contingent of Florida Panther fans on Facebook that thought Barkov was too soft for the playoffs 2 years ago.

People thought Ovechkin was too selfish to win a cup.

Matthews is outplaying Barkov in this series, not sure what else you could want

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Shouldn't there be an award for dumbest thread ever? I nominate this one. Matthews basically dominates every shift he is on the ice, whether he scores or not. Any Leafs fan who criticizes this guy is clearly not old enough to remember some of the legendary centres the Leafs have had over the years....

0.2g per game

Total domination

 

[Pablo El Perro]

There was a contingent of Florida Panther fans on Facebook that thought Barkov was too soft for the playoffs 2 years ago.

People thought Ovechkin was too selfish to win a cup.

Matthews is outplaying Barkov in this series, not sure what else you could want

They're tied in points, with Sasha having more goals.

 

[Evilhomer]

There was a contingent of Florida Panther fans on Facebook that thought Barkov was too soft for the playoffs 2 years ago.

People thought Ovechkin was too selfish to win a cup.

Matthews is outplaying Barkov in this series, not sure what else you could want

If the Internet existing in the late 1980's, do you know what people would have been saying about Steve Yzerman?

 

[Pablo El Perro]

If the Internet existing in the late 1980's, do you know what people would have been saying about Steve Yzerman?

He played on some terrible teams?

 

[Leafshater67]

If the Internet existing in the late 1980's, do you know what people would have been saying about Steve Yzerman?

They would have said he played for bad teams and when he finally had a supporting cast, he excelled and became a prolific winner and hall of famer.

Matthews has a good supporting cast. Great even. He still couldn’t get it done, not even at 4 nations.

 

[TheOrangeDesk]

Not when Hellebuyck exists

Hellebuyck has single handedly stolen a series before. Matthews has barely won a series before

 

[Evilhomer]

He played on some terrible teams?

No, Yzerman played on some high-end Detroit teams that flamed out in the playoffs year after year. He took a hell of a lot of criticism during those years. It wasn't until Shanahan showed up that Detroit finally won a Cup, after which Yzerman's reputation was magically transformed into that of a leader who brought his team to victory.

 

[Leafshater67]

Shouldn't there be an award for dumbest thread ever? I nominate this one. Matthews basically dominates every shift he is on the ice, whether he scores or not. Any Leafs fan who criticizes this guy is clearly not old enough to remember some of the legendary centres the Leafs have had over the years....

When has he done literally any of that in the playoffs?

Never. That’s when. Disprove me with facts. You know you can’t.

 

[Pablo El Perro]

No, Yzerman played on some high-end Detroit teams that flamed out in the playoffs year after year. He took a hell of a lot of criticism during those years. It wasn't until Shanahan showed up that Detroit finally won a Cup, after which Yzerman's reputation was magically transformed into that of a leader who brought his team to victory.

Not in the 80s, which the post said. They had a winning record once in that decade. And that year they lost to the Oilers in the conference finals.