TORONTO – Wendel Clark got more than three decades to enjoy a record most probably forgot existed.
It had been a generation since a rookie pulled on a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater and gave anyone a reason to look up who owned the organization’s best goal-scoring season by a first-year player. Then Auston Matthews arrived on the scene and Clark quickly made peace with the idea that he’d soon be ceding his place in the record book.
“The second period of the first game,” Clark said Tuesday at Air Canada Centre. “He was already ahead.”
It took until the first period of Game 75 against the Florida Panthers for the inevitable to finally happen.
Matthews gathered the puck in the high slot and beat James Reimer with a quick, low shot before the Panthers defenders could do anything about it. So many of his 35 goals have come from in-close on those tight plays with lots of traffic – a skill Clark referred to as a “goal-scorer’s touch.”
“I was just kind of trying to look for it there,” said Matthews. “I was able to kind of sneak it in.”
“The pretend goal-scorers are going high top glove all the time,” added Clark, who had 34 goals as a freshman in 1985-86. “When you watch Auston shoot, he’s like low, between the legs, blocker side – he’s going percentages – if there’s no goal on the shot there’s going to be something on the rebound or maybe another shot or a teammate’s got it.
“So he really thinks the game; more about how to get the goal than to be the pretty goal.”
He has scored more, and sooner, than anyone could reasonably have expected.
In fact, Matthews is only the third NHL rookie in the last 20 years to hit 35 goals – joining Alex Ovechkin (52) and Sidney Crosby (39) from the transformational 2005-06 season that is drawing parallels to this one because of Patrik Laine’s brilliance in Winnipeg.
What will truly make this centennial season unforgettable in Toronto is the fact he’s sharing the spotlight with two other exceptional rookies in William Nylander and Mitchell Marner, and they’re all destined to crack the 60-point barrier.
They also appear to be scoring for a team that finished 30th overall last season into a playoff spot.
The 3-2 victory over the Panthers saw the Leafs introduce yet another rookie to the lineup in speedy winger Kasperi Kapanen – they dressed eight in total – while moving to 87 points. That’s one ahead of Boston, four clear of Tampa and five up on the Islanders and Hurricanes.
With seven games remaining, Toronto needs to hold off two of those teams. It’ll likely take six or seven points to do it.
“It’s got to be fun for [Matthews] and the other guys playing their first year, this has to be a fun year,” said Clark. “Hopefully they can finish it off here the last [seven] games and get to the real fun part.”
There’s no chance they’d have this opportunity if not for an explosion of talent and youth.
Matthews is the only teenaged rookie handling top-six centre duties in the entire NHL this season and he’s played more minutes than any other Leafs forward while doing it. The fact he’s shouldered the necessary defensive responsibilities while generating 253 shots on goal – the league’s sixth-highest total, tied with John Tavares – has made Toronto a completely different team to face.
The 19-year-old has also risen to the challenge after being offered the chance to play wing by head coach Mike Babcock prior to the season.
“I made it real clear: You can play on the wing or you can play [centre],” said Babcock. “‘No, I want to play centre.’ You’ll want to play 200 feet then. And he wants to do that, he wants to be the best player in the world up front and so that’s going to be the challenge for him. He’s going to have to be an elite guy 200 feet.
“Those guys make their team win.”
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It had been only two weeks since the Panthers hammered Toronto 7-2 in South Florida, but interim coach Tom Rowe arrived here with all kinds of praise for his opponents.
After a morning video session, he warned his players that they could be in for a long night if they didn’t come ready to defend the Leafs hard. He said “this is probably the Chicago Blackhawks of a few years ago.”
“They’ve probably got the best collection of young skilled forwards with speed and they come at you in all three zones with a lot of pressure looking for turnovers,” Rowe said of the Leafs.
And so it was nearly 12 minutes into the game, with Matthews, Nylander and Zach Hyman buzzing all around the offensive zone.
Matthews curled off the wall and sent the puck behind the net. Nylander briefly controlled it before Hyman kicked the puck from his feet to his stick and found Matthews through a crowd in the high slot.
The rookie put a little extra celebration on his 35th goal of the season while Clark watched on smiling.
“If we’re going to be any good we need these young guys breaking all the [records] and doing well,” said Clark. “He had a great start to the year and it’s awesome that he was able to get there.”
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