Reliving Auston Matthews Top 3 Moments from the 2023-24 NHL Season
Auston Matthews gave Toronto Maple Leaf fans tons to cheer about throughout the entire 2023-24 NHL season. He finished with a 109 total points, and broke Alex Ovechkin's record for most goals scored in an NHL season since the beginning of the salary cap era. Let's recap Matthews most memorable moments of the 2023-24 season.
Auston Matthews is now the no-doubt, debate-free best player in the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs. With all due respect to Mats Sundin and Dave Keon, Auston Matthews is the only player in franchise history worthy of being mentioned with the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you would know that Auston Matthews set the record for most goals scored by an NHL player in a single season since the start of the salary cap era for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season.
broke Alex Ovechkin's record of 65, which he set in the 2007-2008 season, by scoring 69 goals this season.
Matthews was the only player in the NHL to crack the 60-goal mark and led the league in goals scored by 12.
In doing so, Matthews locked up his third Rocket Richard Trophy and should also receive votes to win the Hart and Selke Trophies. Yesterday he was nominated for the Lady Byng Trophy.
This historic season is going to be one that will be remember for years to come, let's look back on Matthews top three memorable moments from the 2023-2024 NHL regular season.
Auston Matthews Opens The Season With Back-To-Back Hat Tricks
Coming into the 2023-24 NHL season, there were a lot of questions about which version of Auston Matthews the Toronto Maple Leafs were going to get. In the year before, Matthews had his lowest goal total since the 2017-18 season, scoring only 40 goals.
Saying only 40 goals sounds ridiculous, but the questions were valid, considering Matthews scored 60 goals in 2021-22.
Well, Matthews did not waste any time showing fans he was on a mission to have a bounce back season. The Leafs opened their season up against the Montreal Canadiens on home ice at Scotiabank Arena.
In this game, the Montreal Canadiens jumped out to an early two-goal lead before Noah Gregor scored the first goal of the season for the Maple Leafs. Matthews would then tie the game at 2-2 with his first goal of the game and season; then, William Nylander would score his first of the year to make the game 3-2.
The Leafs would then go on to give up three straight goals to the Canadiens to end up down 5-4 late in the third period. This is where Matthews took the game over, he would go on to score two goals in the last five minutes of the game which sent the game to extra time, where the Leafs would eventually come away with a shootout win.
Following this big win in the season's first game, Matthews would score three more goals in the Maple Leafs very next game against the Minnesota Wild. He led the league in scoring from the season's first game and never looked back.
Auston Matthews Back-To-Back Hat Tricks Again?
Auston Matthews became the fifth player to open the season with back-to-back hat tricks. The only players to accomplish this feat in the last 100 years were Alex Ovechkin in 2017-18 and now Auston Matthews.
But this was not the only time Matthews would score back-to-back hat tricks this year. The next set would come in early February at the end of a three-game homestand against the Philadelphia Flyers and the Anaheim Ducks.
In the game against the Flyers, Matthews took over the second period, scoring the only three goals of the period, scoring three in just seven minutes. The Maple Leafs would need all three goals as they blew the 3-1 lead Matthews gave them in the second period.
The Leafs would go on to win this game 4-3 in overtime thanks to a William Nylander game-winner, but they would have had no chance in this game without Matthews taking over the second period.
Matthews would score another hat-trick two days later as the Maple Leafs blew out the Anaheim Ducks 9-2.
What was most memorable about these moments was that Matthews barely celebrated any of those goals.
He was already so accustomed to putting the puck in the back of the net this season that he no longer felt the need to celly. That is when you know a player is on a completely different level than his competition.
Auston Matthews Sets Record For Most Goals In Salary Cap Era
Matthews scored his 66th goal of the season on April 9th, breaking Alex Ovechkin's previous record of 65 goals, the most scored in a single season in the salary cap era.
What was most impressive about Matthews's breaking this record was that it felt like there was no chance he would not.
For the majority of the season, Matthews maintained a 70-goal pace.
Despite not cracking the 70-goal mark, this is the most impressive season we have seen in a long time and likely won't be replicated again...unless he tops himself.
Beyond Auston Matthews insane goal scoring prowess, he was also among the NHL's best defensive forwards. How many more goals would he have if he ignored defense and just concentrated on scoring like Ovechkin?
And what about the 20 posts he hit? Surely that's just a bit of bad luck that prevented him from having an even better season. As it stands, when you adjust for the era, this is one of the best seasons in NHL history.
Detractors will look at the gaudy point totals of Nikita Kucherov and some of the other Hart contenders, but Matthews was just unlucky in picking up secondary assists. His 5v5 numbers and his primary assists put him in line with every other contender.
Only he scored almost 70 times and played elite defense.
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For that reason, Matthews deserves the Hart Trophy.