Leafs' Auston Matthews off to slowest goal-scoring start of his career
Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews has a pretty clear case as the best natural goal scorer in the NHL.
Winner of back-to-back Rocket Richard Trophies as the NHL’s top goal scorer, his 102 goals since the beginning of the 2020-21 season are 13 more than his closest competitor in Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl.
He’s scored 260 goals in just 414 NHL games, and his 0.63 goals per game mark ranks fifth of all-time in NHL history.
When you need a goal, you turn to Auston Matthews.
Except, uh, for right now.
Seven games into the Leafs’ season, Matthews is stuck with just one goal through nearly two weeks of Toronto’s schedule.
He’s picked up five assists, yes, but hasn’t been able to find the back of the net since scoring the game-winner on October 13 against Washington, the Leafs’ second game of the season.
There have been 33 shots on net to start the year for Matthews, but just one goal.
So what gives? Is Matthews broken forever? Is he upset the Leafs haven’t changed their goal song? Or is he going to make us eat our words in the coming days and point out how silly we were for even discussing this?
Matthews’ history of hot starts… usually
Just about every hockey fan remembers Matthews’ historic NHL debut, where he picked up four goals in his first-ever game against the Ottawa Senators.
But Matthews’ best start to a season actually came in 2018-19, where he had a gargantuan 10 goals to go along with six assists in his first seven games.
He’d finish that season with 37 goals in 68 games, dealing with a number of injuries that kept him from playing a full season.
Overall, though, Matthews’ goal-scoring output has steadily increased in seasons three through six of his NHL career, topping out at 60 goals in just 73 games last season.
He’s had at least three goals in seven games into the year in each of his six NHL seasons so far.
But last year’s Hart Trophy-winning season for Matthews might actually be the best indicator that there’s little to worry about for the star sniper.
Through six games, Matthews had just one goal and one assist, before breaking out for a pair of goals in game seven of the year.
By the time his season was 20 games deep, Matthews was rocking a stat line of 10 goals and nine assists, and by game 30, he’d already hit the 20-goal mark, with 22 on the year.
This year, Matthews’ 4.71 shots on net per game are the second-highest mark of his career. His 2.71 individual xG (expected goals) leads the league at 5v5, per Natural Stat Trick.
Even though he’s registered just six shots on the power play this year, his 1.4 xG at extra strength still ranks 16th in the league.
“It sucks. It’s frustrating for sure,” Matthews said last night of not being able to find the back of the net. “But we’re getting the chances and I think I just need one to go in. I think that’s the biggest thing is, you get one to go in and you just kind of relax a little bit and I think over the last two, three games, we’ve definitely offensively been more in rhythm and had a lot of really good looks and chances.”
If history is any indication, it’s probably, almost certainly, just a blip in the radar for the Leafs’ star.
We look forward to writing the “Auston Matthews is having the best month of his career” article in a few weeks.
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