Matthews has not scored in his last 4, which spells trouble for the Caps on Sunday, and here's why
After missing a trio of games due to an unspecified injury, Auston Matthews returned to action against the Florida Panthers on Saturday night, managing zero points on 21:40 of ice time, despite putting 7 pucks on net and narrowly missing a few grade A chances.
Matthews was held pointless for the 14th time this season, which makes his 102 points in 71 games all the more impressive. With Matthews producing 0 points across 14 games this season, that means he's produced his 102 points across just 57 games.
Diving in a little deeper, Matthews has been held pointless in consecutive games just a total of 4 times this season. He hasn't been held pointless in consecutive games since February 28th and March 2nd against the Washington Capitals and Buffalo Sabres.
All of this to say that Auston Matthews is due to pop off tonight against the Washington Capitals. Why, you ask? Well, because Matthews has not scored a goal in his last 4 games. The last time this happened was the stretch of games between January 19th and January 29th against the Rangers, Islanders, Ducks and Red Wings. Matthews did manage 5 assists across that span.
What happened next was what we should be focusing on. After not scoring in 4 consecutive games, Matthews went on to score 34 goals in 31 games from January 31st to April 9th, starting with a 4-point night, including a hat trick, against the New Jersey Devils on Jan 31st.
Matthews is arguably the best goal scorer in the world right now, and tonight, he'll be taking on the other candidate who is arguably the best goal scorer in the world in Alex Ovechkin, who Matthews admittedly idolized growing up. These are the games that Matthews gets out of bed for. I'd bank on a big night from the 24-year-old.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 24 | 301 ANSWERS Matthews has not scored in his last 4, which spells trouble for the Caps on Sunday, and here's why When will Matthews hit 60 goals? | ||
| Tonight in Washington | 86 | 28.6 % |
| Tuesday at home against Detroit | 135 | 44.9 % |
| Friday at home against Boston | 80 | 26.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
