Auston Matthews was the first player since Lightning forward Steven Stamkos in 2012 to score 60 goals a couple of seasons ago. The season that followed wasn’t the greatest with some nagging injuries taking away Matthews’ scoring touch which had Leafs fans worrying if they had seen the peak of his goal scoring magic. All of that has been put to rest in just the first half of this season. Leading the NHL with 52 goals in 55 games played, Auston Matthews is averaging 0.95 goals per game and is likely running away with the Rocket Richard trophy this year. If all goes well, he’s looking at potentially scoring 76 goals this year, something eclipsing even Ovechkin’s 65-goal season almost a decade ago.
What does this impressive feat mean for the rest of the team and the season though? The Leafs have been hanging on to the third place spot in the Atlantic division which will most likely guarantee a first round matchup against the Florida Panthers. The Leafs are on a seven-game winning streak at the time of this article, but Detroit has been red hot on a five-game win streak of their own. The Red Wings are a mere four points away from taking over that third place spot and forcing the Leafs into a wild card matchup instead.
At the same time, Mitch Marner has been racking up the assist totals, but the goal production hasn’t been there all season. William Nylander, after signing his massive extension, seems to have taken his foot off the pedal too as he’s no longer playing to earn an eight-figure salary. This is concerning because we’ve seen this before. In the playoffs, teams put in a lot of effort and manpower into containing Auston Matthews and giving him the toughest matchups possible. If successful once again, the Leafs will be helpless on offence if they can’t get the rest of the lineup to start contributing. We’ve seen some glimpses of offensive bursts from Domi and Bertuzzi, but right now #34 seems to be doing it all. This might be a great achievement and an entertaining one to watch, but at the end of the day it means nothing unless playoff success follows. We can only hope that the stars making the big bucks show up in April.