Maple Leafs will only go as far as ailing, inspired Auston Matthews will take them

TORONTO — What stood out most about Auston Matthews’ dominant performance in Monday’s shellacking of the Calgary Flames might be that it stood out at all.

The captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs was handily the best player on the ice that night. The puck followed him. And when it didn’t, he went and fetched it. Shot it in the net twice.

As recently as last season, however, that was the norm.

This season? The encore to 69 goals and a top-four finish in both Hart and Selke trophy voting? The 27-year-old’s first tour as captain and first campaign as the world’s highest-paid hockey player?

The Auston Matthews Statement Game has been few and far between.

In 2023-24, Matthews exploded for a ridiculous 18 multi-goal games and six hat tricks. He’s trick-free this season, and Monday’s breakout marked just the third two-goal night for Matthews under new coach Craig Berube.

“He grabbed a hold of the room,” says Berube, whose group has slipped from first to third in the Atlantic Division race. “It’s not good enough what’s going on here.

“He talked, and then he walked.”

Strutted would be more accurate.

The challenge now — as it has been throughout this mysterious-ailment-plagued, German-sabbatical-interrupting, something’s-not-quite-right campaign — is for Matthews, and the Maple Leafs, to spin Monday’s dominance into a run.

Let’s be frank.

The way this team is structured — be it through distribution of salary or ice time or talent — Matthews must be a primary driver and producer.

That much is clear if Toronto is to embark on a deep run.

Is it fair? Probably not. But that’s how they built this.

Max Domi called Matthews “the best player in the world” this week, which is a nice thing to say about a friend and teammate. The man has won a Hart, and he is the best goal scorer to come along since the guy who’s about to break the all-time record.

But this season has been a battle.

Matthews is on pace to score his sweater number in goals, which would be half of last season’s otherworldly output and match his career low (he scored 34 in 62 games back in 2017-18).

The captain now ranks third among Leafs in goals (26) and points (60). He’s a plus-2, down from a plus-31 in each of his past two years, and he is taking more penalties than ever before.

Matthews, a three-time goal champ, sits 33rd in the Rocket Richard Trophy race, and his 17 even-strength goals place him 46th in that category leaguewide. Last season, he destroyed the field with 51.

His shooting percentage is a career-worst 12.6 — well below his career average of 15.9. and last season’s 18.7.

He’s also shooting less often and appears hesitant to fire at times. Matthews’ 3.98 shots per game pales to 2023-24’s 4.56.

Sure, puck luck is a factor, but it’s not the whole story.

He has pinged 14 posts or crossbars, but last year he topped the whole league in that category with 20. And he has already benefitted from more empty-netters (three) than last season (two).

“Listen, he’s a confident guy anyhow,” Berube says. “He’s not sitting here worrying, ‘Well, I don't have as many goals as I had last year.’ It's about playing 200 feet and doing the job and being a good leader.”

Besides this one, the only other season in which Matthews registered more assists than goals (2022-23), we learned that he had been dealing with a nagging wrist injury. That problem eventually required two surgeries to fix, one of which went unannounced by the club.

What Matthews is dealing with physically this winter, he isn’t telling. The man is private by nature, and public excuses are not the hockey way.

So, unconfirmed speculation bubbles. Murmurs of a back ailment persist. One source mentioned a sore neck at 4 Nations Face-Off. Is the wrist bothering him again? Fatigue from a road-heavy back half of the schedule?

It’s a guessing game, but one that lingers as Matthews skips the occasional practice for “maintenance” and gets “treatment” after hard skates.

"It’s that point in the season where everybody is grinding through something right now,” Matthews says. “So, yeah, it is what it is. Just gotta keep pushing, keep trying to do what I can do. Compete out there. Just try to keep generating opportunities.”

Because Matthews is skating at something less than 100 per cent, Berube is monitoring the star’s ice time — and did a fine job Monday, tucking it under 17 minutes.

That task will prove Herculean come playoff time, when it’s do-or-die and throwing a battered Matthews over the boards still gives the team a better chance of scoring than, say, a checking centre such as David Kämpf or Scott Laughton.

A noticeable trend in those games where Matthews does appear his best is a willingness to engage physically. Until suffering his “upper-body” injury at training camp, his hits per 60 had been on a steady climb throughout his career and had reached 3.14 in 2023-24.

That number has dipped 1.84 this season. But the eye test is sufficient: Most nights, Matthews is exercising with more caution.

“This time of year, there’s always guys that are playing hurt or banged up and stuff — and he’s no different,” Berube says. “But he’ll fight through it. He doesn’t want any sympathy. He’ll fight through it.”

What’s promising here is the fight Matthews showed at the beginning of an important week that continues with a back-to-back against the contending Colorado Avalanche (Wednesday) and desperate New York Rangers (Thursday).

Could he be finding his voice at the same time as his hands?

That’s not only the hope in Leafland. It’s a necessity.

“He was leading on the ice, leading in the room, talking guys through it,” Leafs forward Bobby McMann says. “Just reiterating that we are a great team and we have what it takes to roll these teams if we want to.”

An empathetic John Tavares reminds that the captaincy is a new responsibility for his teammate, that Matthews is still growing into that role. Which makes the new leader’s more vocal approach behind the scenes both encouraging and intriguing.

“The way he’s carried himself over the last couple weeks has been phenomenal,” Tavares says. “He wants to be that driving force and set that example and play at a very, very high level.

“Him putting the puck in the net, he’s as good as anyone in the world at that — and did it in a huge way for us the other night. But it was also his ability to win faceoffs, play on the penalty kill, his competitive level on pucks, winning battles, things like that. How he uses his body, those little things that that accumulate throughout a 60-minute game that are just extremely impressive and set a tremendous example for the group and pull everyone along.”

We’ll soon find out if Matthews is, indeed, finding his stride and picking his spots at the perfect time. Or if an “off” season for the new captain spells the same for the Maple Leafs.

“Hopefully,” Matthew Knies says, “he can catch some fire here and keep it going.”

Only the joy of Leafs Nation depends on it.