Auston Matthews isn't going to win an individual award this year, but he's back playing at a Hart Trophy level calibre.
When the captain is at his best, he's arrogaunt, but in the best way. He is filled with confidence and is incredibly cocky. I could use a few other adjectives to describe Matthews, but unfortunately those aren't safe for this website, so I hope you get my point.
The three-time Rocket Richard winner knows how good he is and he loves to show that to the fans. Whether it was his "you can't hear me reference" to the Leafs crowd or his mean-mug he gave to the Colorado Avalanche fans who were flipping him off, there's been this new demenour about him that we hadn't seen for the first 30 games.
Although the team has denied it, it's very clear that Matthews has been injured, or something has been nagging him over the past year. You don't go from 69 goals to 33 goals without something affecting you, but over the three weeks, he's back to his regular self.
Maybe the 28-year-old got something for Christmas that fixed his issues, because since December 23rd, the former No. 1 overall pick has been on fire. With nine goals in his last 10 games, Matthews is scoring at a pace that we were used to seeing during his historic 2021-2024 stretch, where he scored 169 goals in 228 games.
Matthews is carrying the Leafs back into a playoff spot
That's typically an unsustainable pace, but if Matthews is able to keep up his current play, 50 goals this year is still in play. That won't be enough to win the Rocket Richard but it would be another extraordinary season from the team's greatest player.
Although his point and goal totals may not reach previous seasons, it's fine. Scoring 69 goals never resulted in a Stanley Cup, so continuing to stay healthy and get better as the season progresses is more important. The Leafs have secured points in 11 of their last 12 games, which is right around the same time Matthews' game skyrocketed.
It's pretty clear that this team is only as good as Matthews takes them, but as shown by his recent performance, if he's chugging, there's really no stopping them. As long as the team can provide some steady goaltending and timely depth scoring, the Leafs are just as good as anyone in the Eastern Conference.
They missed Mitch Marner at the beginning of the year, but Matthews is a good enough player to carry this team himself, so it's awesome to see that's looking as good as ever.