Matthews and McDavid, in the same breath
TORONTO — Auston Matthews is on pace for 143.5 goals this season, but if anybody offers a wager, take the under. John Tavares is on pace for 123, but the same rule applies. The last time two teammates scored at least six goals in their first four games one of them was named Wayne Gretzky, and the other merely reached the Hall of Fame. It’s a good start.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will cool off, because this is hockey. Right now, pucks are bouncing off skates or rattling off sticks or being zipped into the top corner like it’s the most unnaturally natural thing in the world. Matthews and Tavares scored twice each in the Leafs’ 7-4 dusting of Dallas on Tuesday night, Toronto’s second seven-goal game in a row, and Matthews has seven goals and three assists in four games. And TSN’s Ray Ferraro, who had a rinkside seat as hockey’s premier colour analyst, saw something that many who have examined both Connor McDavid and Matthews up close have quietly echoed.
“The game has rolled over from Crosby and Ovechkin to the evolution of McDavid and Matthews,” says Ferraro, whose own 408-goal career bridged the Gretzky era, and the prime of Mario Lemieux. “We were told by all the people that do all the scouting that generationally these players are just different, and special. And then, of course, the word ‘generational’ gets thrown around to all these other people where it doesn’t belong. But McDavid and Matthews are everything that people told us about before we saw them play every game.”
“What I find amazing is, out of training camps, there’s always hyperbole about how this guy looks great and this year it was about how Matthews’ skating was at another level. And I can’t believe how, when he skates, how powerful he is. He skated away from a couple of guys last night and he’s a different skater — like, McDavid is light on his feet, and he’s a lightning bolt. With him, I can’t believe how fast he skates and how agile he is. And Matthews, it’s like he just chews up the ice. He’s just so powerful. He’s at a level that other people just physically can’t compete with. Now, they’re not going to score these goals all season long, and (Matthews is) really hot right now. Like, one shot goes in off a guy’s foot last night. But I went to the game last night, and I fully expected him to score. And, sure enough, he got a pass and boom, it’s in the net.”
In some ways, Matthews hasn’t been great. The Leafs have been outscored 7-5 at five-on-five with the 21-year-old on the ice, and have been outshot and attempted. Without holdout winger William Nylander, there have been holes.
Of course, with winger Kasperi
Kapanen replacing Tyler Ennis on his wing, Matthews’ possession numbers have soared — from 43 per cent to 52.3 per cent, though in limited minutes — and goals for and against have followed suit. Matthews was already one of the two greatest five-on-five scorers in hockey, and is now a trigger on Toronto’s flame-thrower of a power play. He’s commanding. It’s a show.
“I think (Buffalo’s No. 1 pick, defenceman) Rasmus Dahlin will join that (McDavid-Matthews) group,” Ferraro says. “I think he’s just an astounding player, and he’s 18, so there’ll be bumps and ups and downs and things. But … I think generational means that we’re talking about people that do things other people can’t do. And really, to me, these are the two of them, right now.”
Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon — second in five-on-five points per minute last year, behind McDavid and ahead of Matthews — is a beast, but Ferraro thinks he doesn’t quite have the same level of creativity as the big two. McDavid’s a self-evident miracle, despite everything in Edmonton.
And Matthews — well, Ferraro’s brother-in-law Don Granato coached a 15-year-old Matthews on the U.S. development team, and he would show Ferraro highlights of the kid at practice and they would just laugh.
Granato would say that when Matthews came back after missing a day or two, the level of practice would rise when he came back. As a source familiar with the league’s best players who required anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly puts it, “I think Matthews is the only one who can get into the bestplayer-in-the-world conversation with Connor.”
Despite Nylander’s absence, the six-foot-three, 220-pound Matthews has been lethal. His shot — rebuilt again over the summer with coach Darryl Belfry to increase the variety and power of his various release points, with or without his feet set — has been successful with Matthews moving left or right, or even backward.
“He’s so bloody strong,” Ferraro says. “Some guys, their kick point is way down low on their stick. But he’s so strong. Like (Tuesday) night (Dallas defenceman)
Marc Methot was leaning on him on this one play, and Methot is 220 pounds. And he didn’t even budge him. And Matthews came out with the puck and made a play with it.
“I love watching these guys play, and what they can do. I often look at things that happen and say, ‘Yeah, I couldn’t do that.’ And I don’t mean now, I mean when I was playing.
“Like there was a play last night when Matthews had the puck in the slot and it was behind him, and he flipped it up and he bunted it over the next guy’s head. And it didn’t work, and sometimes I do or say things and I’m like, I wonder if anybody heard that. But I kind of laughed.
“I mean, Matthews can and will do things on the ice that Tavares can’t do.
And John’s an elite, top-end player. And Matthews is at another level.”
These are fanciful days, overreaction days. Can Tavares score 40? Can
Matthews, who was already one of the two greatest five-on-five scorers in hockey and is now a trigger on the absurdly hot power play, reach 50? Can winger Mitch Marner — whom Ferraro likens to a right-handed Patrick Kane, as a player — wind up with more points than either of them?
Early days, of something great. Fun.