Having ridden pretty darn high for two years, acknowledged without much dispute as the best among his peers, this almost certainly wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to Auston Matthews in the first quarter of his first NHL season.
Humility doesn’t have to be outwardly perceptible for a professional athlete. Indeed, these days with social media, it can be viewed as weakness, as vulnerability, and attacked. But inwardly, the great athletes need to feel, at least at times, humbled by the difficulty of what they’re trying to achieve, as long as it doesn’t overwhelm them.
At no time did Matthews seem overwhelmed by the 13-game goal-less streak that had tongues wagging across the hockey world. He might have wondered, or at least noticed, that his slump got a whole lot more noticed than those of others.
Want to stream 56 Leafs games this season? Sign up for Sportsnet NOW
Matthews might have noticed, for example, that when Alexander Barkov came to town with the Florida Panthers, Barkov was riding a cold streak longer than his own, but it was barely mentioned. Welcome to the difference between being a Maple Leaf and Panther. Nicely contained in one experience right there for this teenage phenom.
Matthews snapped out of it on Wednesday night, potting two goals and an assist in the first period alone as part of a wild one down in Newark against the New Jersey Devils.
The game was a microcosm of what a rookie-laden team like the Leafs has done and will do this season; do spectacular things offensively, blow a 3-0 lead, pull ahead again, blow that lead, and ultimately lose in a shootout when none of their kids can find the twine behind a smart, veteran goalie.
It was the loosest, least efficient defensive performance by Mike Babcock’s squad in a while, and it was probably no coincidence that it occurred with Freddie Andersen wearing a ball cap on the bench while Jhonas Enroth manned the crease. Right now, the Leafs don’t look like they’re going to be very successful when Enroth’s in the net, and they sure don’t look as confident as when Andersen is.
Staked to that three-goal lead, Enroth succumbed to some Devils pressure early in the second, and while he made a few good stops along the way, 26 saves on 30 shots isn’t going to get it done very often. The good news in the loss, as two away goals were for Toronto FC while losing the first leg of their MLS conference final against Montreal earlier this week, was that the Leafs got a point after consecutive 2-1 losses to Montreal and Carolina, and that Matthews was able to break out, which came with obvious relief to the young man.
Once he got that first one at 10:33 of the first period from in close on Corey Schneider, you could see the celebration, and then the boost of energy it seemed to give him.
Things get magnified when you play in Canada, and doubly so in certain markets, Toronto being one of them. It wasn’t as if Matthews had played badly, or given any indication he was out to be the next Alexandre Daigle or anything.
But he had stumbled, allowing other freshmen to pull ahead in the race to be recognized as the best of the NHL first-years. Patrick Laine, in particular, was allowing those who suggested he should have been the first pick of last summer’s draft ahead of Matthews to crow by filling the net for Winnipeg. Zach Werenski, taken in the ’15 draft by Columbus, was doing some superb things on the Blue Jackets defence. Jimmy Vesey had seven goals in Manhattan, and Travis Konecny was making waves in Philly.
On Matthews’ own team, William Nylander had been named NHL rookie-of-the-month for October, and Mitch Marner had supplied the electricity that Matthews had earlier when he’d started the season with a four-goal game against Ottawa. Well, after Wednesday, Matthews and his sublime hands are very much in the thick of things again. As if they really ever weren’t.
What’s likely is that others will stumble now. Indeed, Laine now has one goal in his last eight after the Jets were shut down by the Wild on Wednesday. Vesey has one goal in his last 11, and none in his last six.
That’s the pattern for youngsters, and really, for NHL goal-scorers in general. It’s tough to score in this league right now, and very difficult to avoid chunks of games when it’s impossible to find the net.
As it stands, Laine leads all rookies with 18 points in 22 games, while Matthews has 16 in 20 games.
Interestingly, while Laine is viewed as the shooter between the two, he has 58 shots, while Matthews has 75, tied for third among all NHLers with Vladimir Tarasenko of the St. Louis Blues.
Of the outstanding freshmen of recent years, most haven’t fared as well early as Laine and Matthews have. Tarasenko, for example, had four goals and eight assists in his first 20 NHL games. Steven Stamkos didn’t have a point until his eighth game, and finished his first 20 with two goals and five assists. Taylor Hall had four goals and five assists in his initial 20 games.
Connor McDavid is the outlier here. He had nine goals and 15 assists, with an injury separating his first 13 games from his next seven. But heck, that’s McDavid. John Tavares was also pretty good right away, with eight goals and 10 assists in the first 20 games of his career.
Really, Matthews has just learned a lesson early in his first season. He might say he knew how tough it would be to be a dominant force in the in the NHL like he had at other levels, but you don’t know until you know. And now he surely knows.
Remember how casually he celebrated those third and fourth goals in that fantastic debut against the Senators?Compare that to the pure joy on his face when he ended his slump against the Devils on Wednesday.
This is the NHL and you might as well celebrate every goal with gusto. As Matthews now knows from experience, you never know when the next one is coming.
