Toronto Maple Leafs

What’s Wrong with the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews?

Thus far this season, the Toronto Maple Leafs are not on their game. Specifically, Auston Matthews is off his game. How come?

by
Old Prof
October 19, 2022

As part of their daily podcast, Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne talk about “all things Blue and White.” Specifically, in this video below, Kyper and Bourne discuss how they think the “regular season doesn’t matter” narrative has affected Maple Leafs’ stars to start this season. They focus on Auston Matthews and his poor start to the season.

Kypreos and Bourne Speculate Why Matthews Is Off His Game

As Kyper and Bourne discuss the Maple Leafs’ situation thus far – and the season’s start of 2-2, with three of those games against inferior opponents, they focus on what they believe might have happened with Matthews. As they both agree, he has not looked like himself so far.

In their discussion, they speculate why the one Maple Leafs’ player who’s way off his own game right now is Matthews. It’s so untypical for the Maple Leafs’ star player that it’s puzzling. Sure, as Kyper and Bourne note, the analytics people might disagree. And, to a point, they might be right.

However, as they suggest (and I concur) something is not right with the Arizona-born Matthews. The fact is, when he’s on the ice, although his team might be getting 68 percent of the shots on goal, he isn’t contributing as he could. We expect him to carry the offense, but he hasn’t – yet.

Watching Maple Leafs’ Games Shows Matthews Isn’t on His Game

To see the problems, all Maple Leafs’ fans must do is watch the games. Something is not quite right.

The fact is that Matthews, for some reason, is not himself. He hasn’t controlled the play like he usually does. More telling is that he has only one goal in four games. And that goal wasn’t one of his patented one-timer shots. It was on a nice redirection, but certainly not vintage Matthews.

Auston Matthews Toronto Maple Leafs NHL photo by Azadeh Kashani

Will Matthews go another four games without a goal? Who would have bet that would be the case? Last season Matthews started slowly and then went on a pace of 50 goals in 50 games. Can he do that again?

There’s something about Matthews that doesn’t look where we’ve been accustomed to seeing him. Why might that be so?

What Other Reasons Might There Be with this Team?

Here Bourne and Kiprosoff speculate a number of possible reasons. One reason they throw out is that the team’s level of engagement is low. Then they ask a series of rhetorical questions:

Are they taking the regular season seriously? Are they not prioritizing these games? Have they listened to fans tell them for so long that the regular season doesn’t matter, so they’re treating it like it doesn’t? Are they waiting for the playoffs to begin before they engage?

So far this season, the Maple Leafs have played three of the four worst teams in the NHL. They’ve lost to two of them and barely beat the other. Part of the reason is Matthews. He might be the best goal-scorer in the league, but he’s not showing it.

Is Matthews’ Focus on the Physical Detracting from His Game?

As Kyper and Bourne wonder, has Matthews’ work to become more physical thrown off anything in his game?

Does it come down to the fact that this team’s core simply thinks it’s going to be easy to win during the regular season so they don’t give their best efforts?

Are they going above and beyond – like fighting through to get the inside position or battling at the paint being on top of the crease?

The Frustration Is that This Team Can Play Lights Out, But Saves It

Like the rest of Maple Leafs’ fans, Kyper and Bourne are frustrated because, near the end of the Coyotes’ game, the team showed another gear. They looked practically unbeatable when the game was about to end. They needed three goals and, until the last goal they scored was overturned, they looked unstoppable.

Too bad the team had waited that long before it started to bust their fannies. It was too little and too late.