Toronto Maple Leafs: Auston Matthews Is Like Mario Lemieux

The Toronto Maple Leafs rode the return of the best player in the history of their franchise to an absolutely great game against the New York Rangers on Monday.

The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t win the game, but who cares?

When you play as well as they did, you will almost always win. How often do you actually run into a goalie paying as well as Igor Shesterkin did?  I don’t really know, but you’ve got to give credit where it’s due – I made Shesterkin a high pick in my fantasy pool because I am a genius.

But back to the Leafs, and specifically Auston Matthews, because we’ve got to discuss his Lemieux-like debut to the 2021 season.

Toronto Maple Leafs Mario and Matthews

In my entire life, the most impressive thing I have ever seen was Mario Lemieux retire from the NHL at the age of 32, take three years off (during which he has multiple surgeries and radiation treatment for Hodgkin’s Disease) then return to the NHL and be the best player in the game at age 35. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

In 2000-01, while I was trying to convince my friends who loved Limp Bizket and Tool about the power of Steely Dan, Mario rejoined the NHL  by surprise just before Christmas, and in his first game in about three years, scored a goal and added two assists.  He would go on to score 76 points in 43 games, which, for perspective, would have given him 98 points in last year’s shortened season……..a season where people went nuts because Connor McDavid scored 105 points, during the prime of his career, while healthy, and when it wasn’t the Dead Puck Era.  

Now, dock me two points for hyperbole if you must, but Matthews’ return the other night reminded me of Mario’s. Not to the same level or anything, but it was still impressive.

After having surgery, and after missing the entire preseason, Matthews wasn’t just the best player on the ice, he made all the other players look bad by comparison.

Mitch Marner and Artemi Panarin are top 10 players in the world.  Matthews, in his first game back, made those guys look like duds.

The fact that he didn’t score is the only thing that stopped this from the biggest story of the week.  Shesterkin robbed him repeatedly, and prevented what should have been a multi-goal debut.

Matthews had eight shots. He had nine personal scoring chances, three of which were termed high-danger.  At 5v5, Matthews posted a 62% puck-possession rating against the best the Rangers had to throw at him.  The Leafs got 70% of the shots, 73% expected-goals, and the Leafs had nine scoring chances while he was on the ice.

You can’t even really say how dominant that is without sounding like you’re exaggerating. For comparison, try to explain to someone who doesn’t care about music what makes The Queen Is Dead  better than Disintegration. 

I wouldn’t normally even talk faceoffs, but the guy with the surgically repaired wrist went 13-2 in the dots.

That is one incredible game.  Especially when you consider there is no way he was at 100%. Matthews was only two games off a goal-per-game pace last season in games where he could actually shoot the puck.   Because of how ridiculous a goal-per-game seems to people who barely remember the 80s, this didn’t get nearly enough attention.

Just entering his age 24 season, Matthews still hasn’t peaked.  He is getting better.  What the upper limits of his talent are, who knows?

What we do know, is that the Toronto Maple Leafs only barely failed to get by Montreal last year despite missing John Tavares and despite the fact that Matthews couldn’t shoot the puck.  He had one goal in seven games, which there is a zero percent chance of him doing if he is healthy.

It’s kind of hilarious that people are judging the Leafs as a team without Tavares and Matthews.  You add those two guys into the mix and they probably at least make the Stanley Cup Final last year.

Watching Matthews in his debut the other night, I couldn’t help but laugh. If this version of Matthews showed up against Montreal, I’m pretty sure they would have lost in four.  The Leafs have a solid team with a ton of depth and high-end talent.

But what separates them the rest of the league is Auston Matthews.  He’s only scratched the surface of what he can do, and I think we’re going to see him scoring at a rate no one has seen in years.  Monday night was  a tantalizing preview of what’s to come.  Like Mario, Matthews is a huge centre who scores a ton of goals and gets underrated compared to a universally acknowledged “best player” who he is likely superior to.