Toronto Maple Leafs: Bigger, Smarter, Faster, Better
Last night, the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs iced their regular season lineups and the two went head to head.
The Toronto Maple Leafs came out in full throttle like I said they would – shameless plug, can’t stop, won’t stop.
The only difference between the two clubs is that the Leafs actually looked like they had iced their regular season lineup and the Canadiens hadn’t.
Montreal did, but they were missing two key pieces in Carey Price and Jonathan Drouin, still, no excuses.
From the very start of the game, the Leafs were playing a much faster and a more well-rounded game than the Canadiens.
Auston Matthews would score only 43 seconds into the first period with a long bomb from the Canadiens blueline that Al Montoya never saw.
That would be his first of three as he dazzled for the second and poked the third in on a breakaway.
He looked bigger, smarter, faster and better than I’d ever seen him play before and it’s still just preseason folks.
Maybe someone should remind him of that, or not, probably shouldn’t bring it up actually.
Let’s leave him in midseason from all season long, how’s that?
Auston Matthews
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Last season, Matthews was a force on the ice, always providing entertaining plays while generating intelligent scoring chances and proving to be defensively responsible.
All of that as a teenager in his rookie season, amazing.
He appears to be one of the hardest players on the ice to push around and I mean that quite literally.
His board work is miles ahead of the competition, turning on a dime and making tough to execute plays.
This year, he just looks bigger on the ice.
Probably because he grew a little bit and put on some muscle, but also because of his status in the NHL now.
He’s not going to take anybody by surprise, everyone knows what he’s capable of.
Another improvement that I see is in regards to his on-ice intelligence of when to change, when not to and even how to properly balance his energy levels, exerting when necessary and saving when it’s not fully needed.
Just a smart player all around.
The last part of his game that looks like he’s worked on is his speed, blowing by the opposition at any given chance.
Overall, Matthews just looks better.
We should be in for a fantastic season of hockey.