Toronto Maple Leafs: Losing Auston Matthews Made Them Better
It’s not often a team loses its best player and becomes a better team overall. But when it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs, it’s exactly what happened when Auston Matthews got injured.
When Auston Matthews was lost due to an upper-body injury, many expected the Toronto Maple Leafs to continue to struggle. Toronto had lost five of their previous seven games prior to Matthews’ injury. Without the former first-overall pick, it seemed likely the losing ways would continue.
After all, through the first month of the season, the Maple Leafs became extremely reliant on Matthews to produce something magical while leading the team to victory. It wasn’t as if Matthews was surrounded by a bunch of talentless teammates. This was more due to his teammates being too focused on admiring his talent.
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Too often through the first month of action, Matthews carried the entire burden of producing offensively for the club. Despite the young center having four teammates who managed to finish with 60 points or more the previous season.
However, once Matthews was lost for four games, it seemed to wake up Toronto’s forward depth. No longer were the Maple Leafs looking at him to provide all the offense and instead the team stepped up in his absence.
Mitch Marner broke out of a horrible sophomore slump that saw him produce only six points in the entire month of October. He now has six points in his last four games.
Nazem Kadri is riding a six-game point streak with four goals and three assists. William Nylander, who hadn’t scored since Oct. 21, provided the only goal in a 1-0 overtime victory over the New Jersey Devils. Patrick Marleau scored in every game Matthews missed except the New Jersey win.
Despite not having Matthews in the lineup, Toronto still managed to produce 12 goals in four games while only giving up five goals. The Maple Leafs won all four games and are currently riding their longest winning streak of the season with six straight victories.
With no Matthews, the Maple Leafs proved they are still an offensive force and it may have benefitted the club not having the center around to prove it. With the team no longer looking at their star player to do it all, Toronto saw a lot of their secondary offensive weapons produce their best stretch of the season so far.
In Matthews’ first game back, the Maple Leafs exploded for a 6-0 win on the road against the Montreal Canadiens. Matthews led the way with two goals in the victory but he wasn’t the only one to find the stat sheet. Toronto saw 12 of their 18 players record a point in the win as the offensive depth was on full display in Montreal.
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Now that Matthews is back, and his teammates found their offensive confidence in his absence, the Maple Leafs might finally be set to start firing on all cylinders for the first time this season. So maybe his injury was a good thing. Because it sure seems to have given the rest of the team a wake-up call. If they keep playing this way with Matthews, they’ll be a very dangerous team.