TSN: Ray Ferraro: "Matthews is a legit MVP candidate"

[CreeksideStrangler]

Oh i agree but to me that's what a mvp is plays all situations

to you maybe... I would say the voted mvp rarely plays on the pk

 

[v00d00daddy]

As much flack as I have given Marner.. He is on a 130P pace this season. Has to be a consideration to how many goals Matthews has this year as well.

Wash away Marners points and Matthews goals and then talk about who’s better.

Matthews is better at literally everything in the game than Marner. Shooting, passing, board play, takeaways, backchecking. Hell if they put Matthews on the pk he’d do it better than Marner.

The gap is growing game by game.

 

[Leafsfan74]

Can’t see Matthews getting MVP unless he ups his assists but certainly Selke and Richard are very likely

has there ever been a Richard/Selke winner? That may be the most impressive thing about this. Goal scorers usually aren’t known for defense

If he wins the Richard And the Selke, how can he not win the Hart?

I always noticed his drive to win. When all is said and done, that's what all the greatest athletes are measured.on. It's the mentality that pushes franchises to success. Players who are skilled, work hard to improve AND sacrifice on the defensive end are as rare as unicorns.

I once said I would only trade him for McDavid, but seeing how.complete a player Matthews is becoming...I may ask Oilers to throw in a decent draft pick...

 

[ThrowDemTongs]

Why all this talk of winning

When he's already won our hearts

 

[ponder]

He’s becoming elite defensively, and getting fairly physical too. Then of course he’s a puck possession BEAST, drives high quality offence at even strength like crazy, and is arguably the league’s best goal scorer. He’s a total stud, one of the absolute best players in the league, and definitely deserves to be in the MVP conversation.

 

[Mats13]

Can’t see Matthews getting MVP unless he ups his assists but certainly Selke and Richard are very likely

has there ever been a Richard/Selke winner? That may be the most impressive thing about this. Goal scorers usually aren’t known for defense

I am curious how someone could win the Richard and Selke and somehow not win the Hart.

If he were to do that he would be a shoe in for the Hart.

 

[Mats13]

Richard
Selke
Hart
Stanley Cup
Smythe

Outside of how awesome it would be watching all of this happen, my favourite part would be how the “neutrals” on the main board would find a way to argue he wasn’t the best player in the league.

 

[JayfromNB1219]

Oilers fan coming in peace

You guys are talking about Matthews potentially being in the Selke race and having a pretty good 200 foot game. I don’t catch a lot of Leafs games so I was hoping one of you guys could fill me in. What makes him such a good 2 way player? I know he can shoot it like nothing else but the idea of him being good on the other side of the puck has never been on my radar.

He also leads the league (might be top 5 now) in takeaways, rarely takes a penalty and his defensive game has grown by leaps and bounds, he forechecks, back checks (on a team known for being lazy defensively) and just happens to be one of the premier goal scorers in the league...the kid is an absolute gem add in the fact he’s added a physical element to his game this year, he really is phenomenal...one of those guys you have to watch a lot to really appreciate his game outside of the offence (he’s also spot duty PK this year)

 

[JayfromNB1219]

There's a fellah who is an oiler fan and I'm pretty sure he posts more about Matthews than McDavid. Imagine being that insecure about your team when you have the best player in the world.

That’s because outside of mcdrai and maybe Yamamoto they are a garbage team who really is a one trick pony, if Mcdrai isn’t going then the oilers aren’t going

 

[Gary Nylund]

He's just such a strange choice to hate.

He's pretty much the perfect hockey player.

Haters are just robbing themselves of a true hockey joy.

This.

Where's the weakness in his game? There isn't one.

If you could change one thing about his game, what would it be? Nothing.

f*** me, we're just sooooooooooooooo lucky that he fell into our lap. He is such a treat to watch, never mind best Maple Leaf of all time, he's one of the best hockey players I've ever seen play, period. And there's many more years of this come.

 

[Critical13]

Why all this talk of winning

When he's already won our hearts

It's not about winning.

It's about the friends you make along the way.

 

[Spirit of 67]

Never been done. Closest off the top of my head are Fedorov (3rd goals, 1st Selke) and Sakic (2nd goals, 2nd Selke).

Sakic would've been my only guess.
And was sure he never did it.

 

[Spirit of 67]

People are going to lose their minds when they see his Selke voting record at the end of the year. When you have colour commentators like Ferraro and Simpson who rave about Matthews' 200 ft. play during every Leaf game they call it sticks in the mind of the viewer.

Yes, SN and TSN are know for their Leafs love.

smh

 

[Spirit of 67]

He should have been captain instead of Tavares, but they won't take it off JT now, unless it's his idea.

The team tradtion before Ballard was that the captain would hand down the C to the next one.
I actually think they'll restore this. Maybe in 2 years or so. Maybe 3.

 

[Gary Nylund]

He should have been captain instead of Tavares, but they won't take it off JT now, unless it's his idea.

The team tradtion before Ballard was that the captain would hand down the C to the next one.
I actually think they'll restore this. Maybe in 2 years or so. Maybe 3.

Someone needs to whisper in JT's ear.

Can you just imagine, the Leafs say that they will have an announcement to make before the next game (sometime when the place is packed with fans again). Then they do some kind of ceremony like MTL has done so well. Can you imagine Sittler skating on the ice with a package of some sort, wearing the C of course taking a lap and then out comes the next captain, Sittler hands him the package and skates off the ice and so on until Tavares gets it, Matthews comes on the ice and Tavares opens the package, takes out the sweater with the C and puts it on Matthews.

After the first couple of captains everyone would know something's up, there would be a slow build of anticipation/tension (and noise) and by the time Tavares pulls the sweater out of the package, the place would be going absolutely bonkers!

Not only would absolutely everyone approve of the new captain but when it came out that it was JT's idea, he would instantly get a huge boost in popularity as well.

This needs to happen!!

 

[Mess]

Can’t see Matthews getting MVP unless he ups his assists but certainly Selke and Richard are very likely

has there ever been a Richard/Selke winner? That may be the most impressive thing about this. Goal scorers usually aren’t known for defense

Matthews has 11 goals and 5 assists in 13 games.

Based on those numbers perhaps Matthews can win both the Rocket Richard and the Cy Young awards this year.

 

[BlueForever75]

I like the way he has stepped up his physical game. He is throwing the body more, playing tight defensively and still producing where we expected him to scoring goals.

His growth is very apparent and the sky is the limit for this guy.

 

[TheProspector]

Early in the season, but Matthews should be direct contention for all of Richard, Selke and Hart. End of story.

 

[RogerR]

Must be tough for the media to compliment the Leafs. They will get so many angry emails

 

[daethfromabove1979]

Sure he's a candidate and a great player but I can't see him ever winning it no matter how good he plays. These guys like McDavid, Draisatl, Kucherov put up insane points numbers that Matthews can't compete with, and it's really all about the point totals at the end of the day. Marner has more of a chance to win it.

 

[RogerR]

Sure he's a candidate and a great player but I can't see him ever winning it no matter how good he plays. These guys like McDavid, Draisatl, Kucherov put up insane points numbers that Matthews can't compete with, and it's really all about the point totals at the end of the day. Marner has more of a chance to win it.

He he can win the Rocket, and finish top 5 in points he certainly has a shot at it. The issue Mcdavid and Draisaitl has is if they miss the playoffs it kills their chances and they may spit votes as well.

 

[Mickey Marner]

Sure he's a candidate and a great player but I can't see him ever winning it no matter how good he plays. These guys like McDavid, Draisatl, Kucherov put up insane points numbers that Matthews can't compete with, and it's really all about the point totals at the end of the day. Marner has more of a chance to win it.

Ultimately McDrai have to make the playoffs in order to win the Hart. If Edmonton misses Matthews would probably be the divisional favourite, which means he's a likely finalist.

 

[ShaneFalco]

He may have been until he went without a goal last night

 

[Spirit of 67]

Must be tough for the media to compliment the Leafs. They will get so many angry emails

Which is why they rarely do

 

[RogerR]

Ultimately McDrai have to make the playoffs in order to win the Hart. If Edmonton misses Matthews would probably be the divisional favourite, which means he's a likely finalist.

This is the issue. The guys favoured to finsih 1st and 2nd in points have a good chance of missing the playoffs. That would eliminate them.