Sharks: Toronto’s Matthews dominates San Jose in return
TORONTO — Auston Matthews says the last month was torture watching his Maple Leafs.
The center jumped right back in the action at full speed Wednesday night.
Matthews had two goals and an assist in his return to the lineup after missing 14 games with a left shoulder injury and Toronto beat the Sharks 5-3 for its third straight victory.
“It kind of just eats away at you,” Matthews said about his time on the shelf. “Watching what we’ve been able to do the last month, we’ve played pretty exceptional at times.”
The 21-year-old was exceptional himself early with a goal and an assist on two power plays before adding the exclamation point on a thirdperiod deflection to help Toronto pull even with surprising Buffalo atop the NHL’s overall standings.
In between, however, Matthews didn’t think he was all that impressive in his first game back, playing on a line with speedsters Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson.
“After the first, I felt terrible,” Matthews said. “The second period, I didn’t feel too good and then in the third period, I got my legs.”
John Tavares also scored twice, former San Jose forward Patrick Marleau added a goal, Mitch Marner had three assists, and Johnsson finished with two assists to help Toronto improve to 18-8-0.
Tomas Hertl, Joe Pavelski and Melker Karlsson scored for San Jose, Logan Couture had two assists and Aaron Dell made 24 saves.
“My personal opinion, I don’t think we’re close,” Couture said. “We show spurts and signs that we’re capable (of playing with the best in the league), but we haven’t put together an effort against a top-quality team . ... We’ve got to figure it out soon. I’m a believer that it takes time, (but) I’m a believer that it doesn’t take 26 games, so we need to figure it out.”
Marleau, a 39-year-old who played 19 seasons with the Sharks, scored against San Jose for the first time, giving him at least one goal against all 31 NHL franchises.