The Toronto Maple Leafs have been off for a few well earned days of Christmas vacation.
Despite being off for Christmas, the Toronto Maple Leafs received some good news yesterday: Auston Matthews will captain one of the NHL’s All-Star teams.
Matthews will join Connor McDavid, Alex Ovechkin and Nathan MacKinnon in captaining one of four All-Star teams this year.
In cases you forgot (and you are forgiven if you do, because it seems like the NHL changes the format all the time) the NHL’s current All-Star format is a 3 on 3 mini-tournament featuring stars from each of the NHL’s four divisions.
It is, in my opinion, by far the best All-Star format the NHL has ever had. The games are super fun to watch and my son loves it. With Matthews captaining the Atlantic Division, it’s going to be a blast.
Auston Matthews
Matthews is on an incredible pace this year, scoring 19 goals in just 23 games. This puts him 18th in league scoring, but everyone above him has played between 35 and 39 games.
To say that Auston Matthews is the best goal scorer in the NHL is to say that the sky is blue or that R.E.M is the greatest rock band in history – it’s an indisputable fact. Apologies to Patrick Lame and Alex Overrated, but it’s true.
Matthews is currently just ten goals shy of leading the league in goals, and if he keeps up his current pace it’s not impossible that he wins the Rocket Richard, despite missing 15 games earlier this season with a shoulder injury.
For Matthews, it’s his third All-Star game. Last year he was the only Toronto Maple Leafs player to make it, but this year he won’t be alone.
John Tavares, Morgan Rielly, Frederik Andersen and Mitch Marner are virtual guarantees to make the team. Although, I guess with it being 3v3 the rosters are not very big, so it might just happen that someone gets unfairly left out.
Although, Marner is fifth in league scoring, Tavares is on pace for over 50 goals, Rielly has more points than Sidney Crosby and is far and away the favorite to win the Norris Trophy, while Andersen is the main reason the Leafs are second in the NHL standings.
It would be hard to keep any of them off the team, but I believe it’s a rule that each team gets one representative, so someone might have to stay home to make room for Matt Duchene, Max Domi and Dylan Larkin, despite the fact that that is a garbage rule that should be eliminated.
Rosters should be announced sometime in the new year.