GIVE MATTHEWS MORE POWER-PLAY MINUTES
Maple Leafs have best goal scorer sitting on bench when best chance to score occurs
Auston Matthews played his 117th game on Wednesday night, and during his season and a half in the NHL, no one in the league has scored more than him at even strength.
By itself, that’s an incredible stat.
Just as incredible, he’s missed 10 games to injury this season and his even-strength prowess remains unchallenged.
Maybe even more incredible than all of this: In the time in which Matthews has led the NHL in 5-on-5 scoring, 56 players, all of whom rank behind him in scoring when it’s most difficult to score, have scored more power play goals than Matthews.
That’s not on Matthews. That’s on Mike Babcock, the usually sensible, pragmatic, and sometimes stubborn coach of the Maple Leafs. He decides how to employ his talent. A lot of what he does makes sense. He’s a great coach. But some of what he does — like his regular usage of Roman Polak — is easy to question.
In the case of Matthews, his coaching logic borders on baffling. Babcock, who cares only about winning, has somehow rendered his best shooter, his best scorer, his best player, to playing second fiddle behind Nazem Kadri, Tyler Bozak and Mitch Marner on the Leafs’ first power-play unit.
This is illogical. Combined, Kadri, Bozak and Marner have scored 20 evenstrength goals this season. Matthews has 17 even-strength goals. Had he not missed 10 games, he would likely have more than 20 right now. Essentially, Matthews scores more than the three forwards on the first power-play unit combined.
The amount of power-play time Babcock assigns Matthews ranks him a ridiculous 201st in the league with the man advantage.
The leading power-play goal scorers in the NHL are Tampa’s Steve Stamkos, Winnipeg ’s Patrik Laine and Evgeni Malkin of Pittsburgh. They have scored 12, 11, and 10 goals respectively. Matthews, ahead of them at even strength, has two. He ranks 169th in power-play goals with that number, and 151st in power-play points. He’s first at even strength.
And it’s not like this is a Leafs team ripe with scoring. They have 17 goals in their past seven games. The time to change Matthews’ role is immediately upon the Leafs returning next Tuesday.
Matthews, for his part, won’t say anything about this. That’s not who he is. But you can see this as a problem waiting to happen. When you have a natural goal scorer — a Brett Hull, a Phil Esposito, an Alexander Ovechkin — you don’t minimize the talent. You have to find a way to maximize all Matthews can bring.
Think about today’s NHL. Would Pittsburgh consider moving Sidney Crosby off its power play? Would Washington do that with Ovechkin? Would Tampa take Stamkos or Nikita Kucherov off its first power play?
Babcock does it with Matthews and there’s hardly a whisper about it.
The top power-play scorers in the NHL are Ovechkin and Kucherov. They play, on average, four power-play minutes a game.
Matthews’ season average is two minutes, one second on the power play.
Not only has Babcock limited Matthews’ time on the power play, he’s placed him in an extraman structure that doesn’t necessarily match his future captain’s strengths.
Phil Kessel leads all NHL players in power-play time. He also leads with 27 power-play points.
Matthews has two goals and six assists, for eight power-play points.
Kessel is playing more than four minutes a game with the man advantage, and more than double the ice time Matthews gets in similar circumstances.
Part of coaching is finding the best places to utilize all your players, taking advantage of strengths and weaknesses.
A power play is about scoring goals. The Leafs’ best goal scorer needs to be on the team’s first power play.