Auston Matthews and Leafs heading into familiar NHL territory

With the way things have been going of late both on and off the ice, the Toronto Maple Leafs is on the verge of missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time during the Auston Matthews era. With the way the team had been built since the arrival of the Maple Leafs captain, not many would have envisioned that Toronto could fail to qualify for the postseason at any time, but here we are.

But the more this past decade has played out for Matthews and the Leafs, the more it is starting to closely resemble the territory that Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals ventured through in the past.

Is Auston Matthews and the Leafs approaching Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals territory?

It was two decades ago when the Capitals superstar began to make his mark in the NHL back in 2005-06 and ultimately became the face of the franchise. As for Matthews, he would arrive in Toronto almost one decade later during the 2016-17 season and has now also become the face of the organization.

As a prolific goal scorer, much like Matthews has been for the Maple Leafs, Ovechkin essentially converted Washington into perennial contenders by the 2007-08 season. At the time, their emergence was fuelled by arrival of young talent including winger Alexander Semin and center Nicklas Backstrom while anchored at the blue line by an offensively-minded Mike Green.

Just for comparison, the emergence of the Maple Leafs back into prominence had the likes of Mitch Marner and William Nylander helping Matthews out up front, with an offensively-strong yet defensively-weaker Morgan Rielly anchoring the defense. That core formation enabled Toronto to make the playoffs for nine consecutive seasons.

However, the Capitals were never able to get over the hump in making past the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in Ovechkin’s first twelve seasons with the organization. Similarly, the Maple Leafs have failed to reach the conference finals as well during Matthews’ first nine seasons and counting with Toronto. 

Moreover, when the Capitals moved on from Semin, who was close friends and a regular with Ovechkin on their top line for many seasons, Washington would struggle initially, including missing the playoffs just a couple of seasons later in 2013-14. For the Leafs, they moved on from Marner, who was Matthews’ right-hand man on the top line as well as his close friend as well and this season, Toronto will likely be missing the playoffs too. 

As a result of all of the similarities, there could still be hope for Matthews and the Maple Leafs. That is because the Capitals ended up going through various personnel both on the ice and at the management level before finally finding the right combination to get themselves to the next level. Ultimately, they broke through during Ovechkin’s 13th season as Washington would go on to win the Stanley Cup. So if Toronto can somehow retool properly and get the right chemistry to work for the team, a championship title could be waiting for Matthews and the entire Leafs squad as well in the near future.