We Need to Try to Appreciate Auston Matthews More
Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews is chasing modern-day history, yet it feels like we're not talking about it enough.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have seven games left, and coincidentally Auston Matthews only needs seven goals to hit 70 on the season, which is insane. I know that we expect Matthews to score everytime he steps on the ice, but can we take a second to appreciate what's happening right now?
Alex Ovechkin, who's the greatest goal-scorer of all-time (sorry Wayne Gretzky but he is), scored 60 goals in a season once, with 65 being his best campaign ever. Since then, we've seen a few players get close, but nobody has touched 70 since the early 1990s.
Goal-scoring has increased over the past few years, as we've seen more "unknown" players reach 50 or 60 goals in a season, but if Matthews can reach 70 goals, it should be celebrated like the team won the Stanley Cup. This type of individual achievement is unbelievable and every night, we get the pleasure of watching the greatest player in team history play for our team.
Auston Matthews Will Hit 70 Goals This Year
Matthews desereves the Hart Trophy, although it seems like he isn't likely to win it, and this team probably isn't going to win a Stanley Cup, so we need to hold onto these last seven games as Matthews pushes for a record. If you don't think there's anything to watch or play for at this point in the campaign, you need to think again and watch every shift he plays.
When it comes to sports figures, I don't think we appreciate the moments that we're watching until it's over and it's no different with Matthews right now. As much as we'd expect for him to do this every year, he may never hit 60 goals in a season again, let alone 70, so we need to really enjoy this while we can.
These types of players are once-in-a-generation type talents and it wasn't that long ago that we thought Phil Kessel was amazing for scoring 37 goals in a season.
As much as I'm pessimistic about this team's chances in the playoffs, I'm optimistic that Matthews will hit 70 goals. It feels like he's going to get at least two goals on Hockey Night in Canada against the Montreal Canadiens and then be off to the races.
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It's not going to be easy, but all of us need to enjoy the last seven games of the regular season, before the playoffs stress out too much. We're watching history and we don't even know it.