Leafs’ Matthews relished Christmas homecoming
GLENDALE, ARIZ. Game night in Toronto already has an Auston Matthews feel to it, from the No. 34 sweaters streaming into the ACC to his fingerprints on the scoresheet.
But Hogtown can only claim so much of him, which becomes apparent any time the club’s leading scorer comes back to his native Arizona, in this case, a fortunate bit of scheduling with Thursday’s game against the Coyotes that was preceded by the NHL’s Christmas break.
First and foremost, Matthews was able to re-acquaint himself with his Mexican-born mother Ema’s home cooking for the holidays.
“I haven’t eaten out at all since I’ve been back,” Matthews remarked on Wednesday as the Leafs regrouped for practice at Gila River Arena. “I just had her cook for me every meal. It’s just nice to sit down with my family. They’re not around as much, especially throughout junior (hockey) when you’re away a lot. So you have to cherish the times you can come home on little trips like this and be around them.”
After flying here from Toronto’s last game against New York last Saturday, he spent some time with friends and on the links with his father Brian and younger sister Breyanna, who is quite a golfer.
“No snow or rain here. It’s just all sun right now,” Matthews said of the most obvious advantage off escaping Toronto this time of year. “It’s pretty nice. Get away from hockey for a couple of days, don’t have to think about it, just kind of re-charge the batteries.”
Matthews has begun leaving his stamp on this area, too. The publicity that surrounded his first overall selection in 2016 and the rise of fellow NHLers from the area, some of them sons of transplanted Winnipeg Jets, have seen a spike in youth hockey in these parts. As Matthews and the Leafs departed one door of Gila Arena, the ‘Little Howlers’ club, an instruction program run by the Coyotes, was having its award ceremony in a conference room. A long line of boys and girls, a few with Hispanic names and many wearing NHL colours, were getting introduced one by one with a college graduation march playing for effect.
“Hockey’s really grown here, especially the last couple of years,” Matthews said. “It’s just cool to be a part of that. All the support that comes from here, being here in the summer and just going to the rinks, seeing a lot of kids come up to you, it’s definitely pretty humbling.”
But he can still walk the streets in virtual anonymity, this being primarily a baseball and football town.
“Just if I step inside a hockey rink,” he added. “It’s kind of different.”
Though smug Canadians might not think much of the Coyotes arena, with its remote location from downtown, struggles with attendance and its Cup dreams far off, Gila Arena and its predecessor, America West, made quite an impression on young Auston.
On Thursday, the whole clan will be watching from a private suite they acquired to make ticket demand more simple.