A wait over, a weight off
Mom wore a T-shirt with her son’s face emblazoned on it.
Of course, her boy is Auston Matthews.
That was worth an eyeroll and an indulgent snicker from the spawn.
Game 3, it was, Ena Matthews in the stands at the Air Canada Centre with husband Brian, proud parents of the Maple Leaf stud who scored his first goal of the first round Monday as his team wedged itself back into post-season aspirations.
“She’s probably going to wear it to every game now,” Matthews grinned.
See, every parent on the planet has the ability to embarrass their offspring.
It was Christina Marleau’s idea, apparently. “I think all the wives and girlfriends got them,” mumbled Matthews, turning to tuck his skates into his cubicle after Wednesday’s practice.
Still, the slightly chippy Matthews from the post-Game 2 scrum had been stuffed back in the closet. He had a team-high six shots on Tuukka Rask by Toronto’s future captain in that encounter and stiffed on all of them. Yet for possibly the first and only time since Brendan Shanahan won the ping-pong draft lottery on April 30, 2015, Matthews was feeling the sting of a shattered Leaf Nation.
Coach Mike Babcock had warned his troops to stay off social media after back-to-back stinkers. Might as well ask 20-somethings to stop breathing.
“We’re all on social media,” said Matthews, who spent Tuesday’s off-day hanging out with the parental units. “You can stay away from it as much as you want but it’s always going to be there. A lot of times it’s people … in their basement, you don’t even know them.”
Certainly, through two games, Matthews hadn’t been his reliably magnificent self. And he’d ached to be that.
“For myself personally, I didn’t play the way I wanted to in Game 1. I thought I was better in Game 2 but didn’t capitalize on opportunities, didn’t score. So, obviously, a big weight off my chest there to be finally able to produce and help the team win.
“I think you go through that a lot, even when you go through little slumps. People like to take it out on you on social media. That’s just the kind of world we live in. I think you just let go of it. You just relax, take a deep breath. You’ve got the people around you that matter most, your teammates and your family, those people always give it to you straight.” So he has peeked. “No, I was not hurt by it,” he said.
If you say so, hon. Disappointed in himself though, and, like the rest of the Leafs who endured that times-two misery on Causeway. Because this was supposed to be their time, a come-to-Stanley moment, or at least come closer, or at the very least put up a dogged fight.
“This is where we want to be,” Matthews said. “We want to be in the playoffs every year. You listen to guys talk about it all the time. Patty’s been in the league for 20 years and you think you’re going to win and then time flies. He’s been in the finals (once) and the conference finals (four times) and he’s never won it. So you definitely want to make sure you capitalize on these opportunities because they’re far and few.”
There were so many lessons learned and partway applied in Game 3, which was still a very close thing until the waning minutes of a 4-2 win.
“A little bit off relief,” Matthews acknowledged. “A lot better with our details, throughout the game. Played a full 60 minutes. Everybody dug in. We’ve got to make sure we’re ready (Thursday) because they’ll have a bounceback game.
He added, with chagrin: “We were giving up way too many opportunities, just letting guys walk in and unload all over Freddie. That’s not how we’re going to win games.”
Matthews, specifically, has been contending with the behemoth coverage that is Zdeno Chara, yet still managing to get his bearings and his stick on pucks this past brace of games, baffling the giant with speed and slick.
“You think you have a step on (Chara) but he’s got that reach so you’ve got to keep the puck really protected. Especially in the offensive zone, move on first possession and try to create as much space away from him as possible.”
Not usually demonstrative, still just a 20-year-old sophomore, Matthews was clearly over the moon when he scored what turned out to be the game winner in Game 3, windmilling his arm and body-hugging teammates. “It gets a little weight off your shoulders and you can kind of go out there and relax, so it feels good.”
Babcock spoke of it in larger Atlas terms: “I thought Auston got the weight of the world off his back.”
Being Auston with a bullet again, the crowd chanting his name: Au-ston Mat-thews!
“It’s kind of a feeling you can’t really describe. So you’re trying to bottle up your emotions, not get too high or too low, but it still feels pretty special. Especially at home, tight playoff game like that, it’s kind of a cool feeling.”
Can he crank it up a few notches? Can he be brilliant?
“It’s really crucial,” he said of returning to Boston with the series split, when so many had written the Leafs off after 48 hours of post-season hockey. “We want to make sure we take care of business. They won their two at home, we need to do our job and win our two and make it best-of-three.”