Matthews on pace to top Clark’s mark
Auston Matthews couldn’t score for almost a month.
For 13 games, from late October to late November, the Toronto Maple Leafs rookie fired 45 shots on goal and none found the back of the net.
The 19-year-old has ripped off eight goals in 10 games since then, including his team-leading 14th against the Arizona Coyotes, his favourite club as a kid growing up in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“It’s always fun to score goals,” Matthews said after the 3-2 shootout defeat Thursday night, the fourth straight loss on home ice for the Leafs. “It’s what I like to do.”
Matthews is on pace for 40 goals this season, which would eclipse Wendel Clark’s rookie record of 34 set during the 1985-86 season. He’s also producing at a 65-point pace, which would threaten Peter Ihnacak’s record of 66 points in a rookie season. Ihnacak was 25.
Matthews has scored 11 of his goals at even strength, a mark that ties him for fifth in the NHL and puts him first among rookies. Only Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine has scored more among first-year players than Matthews. Laine, a teenager producing equally inspiring numbers for the Jets, has 17 goals and 25 points to 14 goals and 23 points for Matthews.
What they are doing is remarkable given the significant decrease in scoring today versus the wideopen game of the 1980s.
Few teenagers come into the league and score quite this easily. The last to produce at this pace at a similar age was Sidney Crosby, who tallied 39 goals as an 18-yearold rookie for Pittsburgh.
Eric Lindros scored 41 goals in 61 games at age 19 in his first year for the Philadelphia Flyers, and Jeff Skinner had 31 goals as an 18-yearold for the Carolina Hurricanes.
“He’s just got a knack for the net,” teammate Nazem Kadri said of Matthews. “He’s got that offensive instinct and obviously he can cash in on the power play, too, which is basically how those high-production players get such high production. He’s definitely got a knack for the net.”