The Toronto Maple Leafs have not win a Stanley Cup since the NHL expanded beyond six teams, and so everything they do, including managing the health of Auston Matthews, their best player, should be directed towards that goal.
But for inexplicable reasons, that does not seem to have been the case with regardes to Auston Matthews health this season.
Matthews has been in and out of the lineup all season and hasn't looked anything like the best hockey player alive, which is what he is when he's fully healthy and playing at his best. His inability to score goals while playing hurt has sunk the Leafs playoffs dreams in the past, and it's very obviously important to make sure he's good to go for the playoffs.
Which is why I couldn't believe it when I read in a recent Athletic article by Jonas Siegel that Auston Matthews had "twice tried to play through" this injury.
Come again?
Extremely Irresponsible: Why Has Auston Matthews Been Playing Through Pain?
Since the Leafs are practically a guarantee to make the playoffs regardless of Matthews participation in the regular season, their management of his injury makes no sense, at least as far as I can tell.
In fact, it's downright stupid, short-sighted and irresponsible.
I realize the NHL has extremely silly, outdated, even embarassing codes of conduct/culture when it comes to playing hurt and playing through pain in order to be seen as a tough-guy, warrior, etc.
But even considering the culture in which he plays in, letting the best player in franchise history ever suit up for a regular season game in which he is not 100% healthy just seems idiotic.
Does the Toronto Maple Leafs Front Office not understand the concept of risk vs reward?
It's a great system for figuring out the answer to tough questions: you weigh the risks, compare them to the rewards, and decide if the risk is worth taking. It's a concept encoded in our behavior from birth, and you would expect professinal hockey teams in a billion-dollar industry to have a firm grasp of the concept.
Basically, if Matthews plays a regular season game while hurt at all, the risk of long-term injury destroys any reward you can get from one regular season game, as is self-evident to anyone who thinks about it for two seconds or longer.
By letting Matthews play while hurt, the Leafs take a massive risk, but the potential reward is practically nothing.
The Leafs are comfortably in a playoff spot. Sure, Matthews can help them win the division, but a division title and no Matthews in the playoffs is much worse than being a wild card team who is just about to get their best player back.
I don't know the circumstances of the injury, so I can only speculate, but I do know at least one thing: There is never a reason to let Auston Matthews play hurt. The fact that it happened twice is unconscionable and calls into question the entire competancy of the Leafs Front Office.