Early scoring flurry from Auston Matthews distracting us from his current lack of production
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Fresh off of signing a four-year extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Auston Matthews came out of the gate red-hot to start the season scoring hat tricks in back-to-back games. Unfortunately, he has not been able to score consistently since. He went the rest of October scoring just once before scoring 6 goals in the Leafs' first three games of November, including another hat trick. Since November 6th, he has 1 goal in 9 games and hasn't scored in 13 of 21 games for the Leafs this season.
While Matthews has 23 points in 21 games, including 14 goals, he has struggled to score consistently this season and it has caused some concern for Leaf fans. However, TSN's Craig Button says there should be no concern with Matthews.
"There is no concern with Auston Matthews. He is the NHL's best goal scorer. That's what he is at this point in time... This is where Auston Matthews sits in terms of process and what matters to goal scoring. Slot shots, inner slot shots, forecheck chances, cycle chances, he's in the top-three in every single one of those categories... Everything that is required to be an elite goal scorer, Auston Matthews is doing it better than anybody else in the league and sits fourth in goal scoring. Don't be worried about Auston Matthews. The goals are going to go in because he does everything right to score goals."
You may not agree with Button and you might be concerned about the lack of consistent scoring from Matthews, but it has been a trend among the league's top-five goal scorers so far this season. Vancouver's Brock Boeser has scored in just 10 of 23 games for the Canucks. Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov and Winnipeg's Kyle Connor have scoring in just 9 of their teams' games and Florida's Sam Reinhart has scored in 11 of the Panthers' 22 games.
While Matthews is struggling to score consistently, he is generating chances and plenty of opportunities. He is also playing on a team that is struggling to sort out their inconsistencies right now. After a 17-game point streak to start the season, William Nylander has not scored in his last four games, Mitch Marner scored for the first time in nine games last night, and John Tavares has just 2 goals in his last 12 games.
Once the Leafs are able to figure out how to play more consistently on both sides of the puck, the goals will start to come in bunches for Matthews and others. For now, there are no real concerns.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 1 | 509 ANSWERS Early scoring flurry from Auston Matthews distracting us from his current lack of production Are you concerned with the lack of scoring from Auston Matthews? | ||
| Yes, he's never been this cold before | 131 | 25.7 % |
| No, it will come | 275 | 54 % |
| Ask me again after Christmas | 103 | 20.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
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