Auston Matthews still finds ways to amaze us.
The Maple Leafs sharpshooter has gone berserk this month, scoring 12 goals in his past seven games. Matthews is the first player since Jaromir Jagr in 1996-97 with at least 28 goals through 30 games of a season. It appears he is well on his way to winning his third Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy in four years.
“When you (have) confidence, all of a sudden it feels like you can score every shift,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters after Matthews had two goals against the Blue Jackets on Saturday. “And when you’re a guy with his ability, when he gets confident, now he feels like he can score every time he touches the puck. It’s fun to watch.”
To Keefe’s point, Matthews has scored on 18.2 per cent of his shot attempts during his goal streak — double his career average of 9.1 per cent. He is generating 6.14 scoring chances per game during the streak, up from 5.17 per game before it began.
Two things stand out when analyzing Matthews’ recent outburst. First, he has been more accurate with his deadly one-timer, scoring four goals on 13 attempts. In Matthews’ first 23 games, he went 4-for-33 on one-timer attempts, 18 of which did not hit the net (12 missed, six blocked).
The other is that Matthews is capitalizing on his chances off the rush after a slow start in that area. Matthews scored once on 27 rush chances through his first 23 games, which is unlike him. His 66 rush goals in his first seven seasons were fifth most in the NHL over that span. He has made up for it, though, with four rush goals on 14 chances over his past seven games.
Matthews will inevitably slow down at some point, but a second 60-goal season is a distinct possibility. Only eight players in league history have scored 60 goals multiple times — Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy, Mario Lemieux, Phil Esposito, Brett Hull, Pavel Bure, Steve Yzerman and Jari Kurri.
Matthews could soon join that illustrious list.
“He’s just in one of those zones that we’ve seen him (in) over the years,” Maple Leafs captain John Tavares told reporters. “When he gets on these hot streaks and (has) these multi-goal games, it’s so impressive, just because you know teams are fully game-planning against him and trying to limit his opportunities.”
