This may sound crazy, but the Toronto Maple Leafs are better off without Auston Matthews.
As proven by their 4-0 win on Tuesday night against the Boston Bruins, and their 3-1 win against Detroit on Friday, the Toronto Maple Leafs are a fantastic hockey team even when Auston Matthews isn't in the line-up.
The Leafs are a good enough hockey team to be successful without Matthews and their record shows. When he doesn't play, the team has a 37-19-2, respresenting over a .630 winning percentage, which would be the 10th best season in team history. (This doesn't include last night's game).
This isn't a five game sample size where the team just randomly wins a few games in a row. This is 57 games we're talking about, which is more than enough to show that this team shows up when their captain is out.
So, am I trying to say that the Leafs should trade Matthews tomorrow and they should try to win a Stanley Cup without him? Absolutely not. This team clearly needs him, but I'm trying to prove a point that the core-four can be and should be broken up.
Whether it's Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner or William Nylander that is out of the line-up, this team still has essentially the same chance of winning as they would without one of them. Hockey is a weird sport that you can still be very succesful if you get rid of one player, if the rest of the team is solid around it.
Toronto Maple Leafs keep winning without Matthews
Nylander, Tavares and Marner had a great game on Tuesday night, but the main reason the team actually won was because of their goaltender. Anthony Stolarz was brilliant, stopping all 29 shots on net and was the true reason he won.
In a playoff series, if Stolarz is the best player, the Leafs would still be able to win, even if Matthews and/or Marner were out, because that's just how this sport works.
Matthews is a game-breaker and is someone who you want on your team every night, but perhaps the need to constantly get him the puck hurts the team. Perhaps they are able to play more naturally without him, and when he comes back they should consider this when they set their lines. For example, Mitch Marner specifically seems to thrive when he's the best player on his line and isn't worried about constantly getting Matthews the puck.
Also, there is something to be said about a full team effort and if the Leafs can turn their focus to defense and goaltending, they're going to go a long way.
They have more than enough fire-power up front to win on a nightly basis, so I hope that Matthews' absence shows the rest of the organization that they should play more as a team, instead of relying on one player every night.