Auston Matthews is hurt, and no one really knows where he's hurt or how long he'll be out. What we do know is that, after this weekend, he'll have missed 11 games with a mysterious injury that sure seems like it needs surgery to correct.
Injuries are a part of life in hockey and largely determine who wins the championship each year in a league dominated by a salary cap that artificically keeps team's talent levels close to each other.
It's not the Leafs fault that Auston Matthews is injured, but it is their fault that they don't seem to have any kind of back-up plan.
In fact, it is their complete lack of plan, which looks a lot like incompetence or down-right negligence, that deserves mockery and scorn. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
The Maple Leafs Centre-Ice Situation Deserves Ridicule and Mockery
It was very appearent to even the most optimistic Leafs fan that this team has been bounced from the playoffs on several occaisions when depth scoring failed the team when Matthews was hurt or otherwise unable to perform like the goal-per-game MVP he can be, at his best.
It was also extremely appearent that in year seven of his UFA mega-deal, John Tavares couldn't be expected to be an elite player anymore, and that Max Domi was a winger, not a centre, that the team lacked depth scoring, and that David Kampf is too expensive for the fourth line and incapable of helping the team higher up in the lineup.
Leafs Nation agrees on NOTHING, ever. There are no unanimous opininions about the Toronto Maple Leafs. At least, not usually. But as someone who has covered every aspect of this team for nearly a decade and stuck around to defend and discuss my opinions (ad naseum) I can tell you even the most basic statement is controversial.
But I didn't find any Leafs fans who disagreed with those facts (to recap: 1) depth scoring an issue 2) Tavares declining 3) Domi a winger 4) Kampf bad). The fact that we all pretty much agreed with these things in the summer shows why people are so upset with the management of this team.
Basically, if we knew it, a group of professional hockey managers should have known it.
The Leafs did not address their depth scoring issue, and in fact with Tyler Bertuzzi leaving, it got worse. They talked about making Marner or Nylander into centres, but never bothered trying.
They should have had John Tavares penciled in as their third line centre, but did not find anyone to put between him and Matthews (and instead spent a ridiculous amount of money on Domi and Ekman-Larsson, players they did not need).
They didn't even bother trying with Easton Cowan and sent him to junior. They tried very hard to make Pontus Holmberg into a top-nine NHL centre, but it was like trying to get people to call Twitter "x" - it was widely mocked and never going to happen.
The afforementioned Domi has been playing centre, and despite a recent hot-streak, he's been horrendous. David Kampf is losing his 4th line minutes with a 41% xGoals rating.
A healthy Leafs team has, at centre-ice, an MVP, a still-surprisingly-good veteren, followed by a gaping hole at the position in the bottom half of the lineup. A team with Auston Matthews injured has the worst centre-ice position in the NHL among any team reasonably hoping to make the playoffs.
It didn't have to be this way. The team should have sought younger players with more potential, given Cowan a chance to win a job, replaced Kampf, used Domi exclusively on the wing, and found a way to move Tavares down the lineup (he's been great this year, but his upswing couldn't have been counted on or predicted).
The Leafs, from October to December, had pretty much the best goaltending in the NHL and were also a top team. I warned that their statistics suggested they were heading for a crash, and that without top goalies they wouldn't be at the top of the league.
In their last ten games, the Leafs goaltending has been 18th instead of 1st, and they are 5-5 during that time, ranked 15th overall. That's the record of a borderline playoff team, and it's what happens when the goaltending runs out, which it always does.
The Leafs centre-ice situation is a lot more predictable than goaltending: it's going to cost them games. With Matthews out, they're completley screwed. Even with him, they don't have the depth needed to win at this position.