Matthews not resting on rookie laurels
Leafs star says he’s gained flexibility
The pained, eyes-to-thesky glances of Toronto Maple Leafs defencemen said it all.
Auston Matthews is back in town, his first summer scrimmage with the boys showing zero rust. He showed Friday he can stickhandle in a phone booth — if they were still around — and then come off the boards to make multiple dekes around defenders and tuck the puck in.
If there’s a sophomore jinx perched like a buzzard outside the Air Canada Centre, it must first overcome a rested, robust Matthews, who has had none of last summer’s distractions these past few months.
Matthews has been almost off the radar in Arizona since the NHL awards, in which his first-place vote totals among writers as top rookie ran 164-3 ahead of Winnipeg Jets’ Patrick Laine.
After coming off the ice Friday with Mitch Marner, Zach Hyman, Connor Brown, Nikita Zaitsev and the rest of the young Leafs, Matthews displayed how a quiet summer could help approaching training camp in less than two weeks.
“For sure. It was nice not having so much stuff going on around you, being so hectic with the combine, the draft and everything. It was more relaxing. It was nice to spend a little more time training.”
Matthews is praising Pilates, a fitness system designed to alleviate back pain and improve balance, ideal for a 6-foot-2, 200-plus pounder who feels the slings and arrows for 82 regular-season games.
“I focused a lot on body posture this summer,” Matthews said. “I started doing Pilates, just kind of opening myself up more a bit, being more upright and (with the goal of ) avoiding other injuries.
“I think I’m more flexible and I feel more flexible . ... I feel good and I’m pretty excited to get going.”