Toronto Maple Leafs: Top 10 Meaningful Goals of the Decade

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OTTAWA, ON – OCTOBER 12: Making his NHL debut, Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs poses with the 4 pucks with which he scored his first career NHL goals after a game against the Ottawa Senators during the season opener at Canadian Tire Centre on October 12, 2016 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images) /

#1 – Auston Matthews Scores Four Goals in NHL Debut – October 12th, 2016

I’m going to be cheating a little bit on this one, but the reality is you can’t pick just one of these goals to use on the list.

The Toronto Maple Leafs team suffered for years and years without a true number one centre, and finally had their wishes answered when they selected Auston Matthews at first overall in the 2016 NHL Draft.

And when you’re coming into an organization as stories and as popular as the Toronto Maple Leafs, the microscope is going to be on you.

Expectations were high for Matthews, but nobody would have expected him to do what he did on October 12th, 2016.

He scores two in the first period before making history by completing the hat trick by the start of the second period.

And just for good measure, he scores a fourth before the end of the period.

The Leafs would go on to lose that game, but in the end I don’t think anybody was truly upset over the loss.

Matthews only took one game to show us what we’ve been missing in a true number one centre since Mats Sundin, and he did it with the reminder that we’re in good hands.

Next. Toronto Maple AHL Prospect Update. dark

That wraps up my top 10 goals of the decade. Here’s to a new decade with many more exciting moments and hopefully a Stanley Cup. Have a happy new year, Leaf fans.

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