The Toronto Maple Leafs have crushed five out of six opponents in recent games, but it’s not enough to hide their Captain, Auston Matthews’ poor performance. Fans saw his tired and pummeled body language in the Sharks game. But before we move on to his body language and what fans are calling out about it, let’s talk about his poor performance.
In a recent podcast on Sportsnet, Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne took a deep dive into the Auston Matthews question . At the start of his answer to Bourne’s question on the same issue, Kypreos said, “Auston Matthews fans or still ones that are a little bit more critical and nitpicky like me. But we all agree that we’re not seeing what we’ve been accustomed to the majority of his career.” And before we look at what Justine Bourne said about Matthews, let’s look at the Toronto Maple Leafs Captain’s stats this season.
Auston Matthews has scored 22 goals this season with 30 assists, which makes his points tally 52. But if we look at the ranking, Auston is 44th in scoring goals in the entire league, 62nd in assists, and 52nd in points. This clearly justifies what Justin Bourne said following Kypreos’s response.
Bourne said, “I saw someone saying that the Leafs need to get Tommy Novak or something like that. And it’s like if Auston Matthews and the big guys don’t score, if they’re not the best versions of them, it doesn’t matter. Yeah, this whole thing doesn’t work. So, I would say that it’s getting concerning that the playoffs start in five weeks, and he’s on pace for a 33-goal season in 68 games. That’s like a piece of this that has to come together. He just looks lethargic.”
And to talk about his body language part, in the Sportsnet’s Leafs Talk, JD Bunkis and Sam McKee were discussing the same. JD Bunkis said, “The big thing for me in this game…A big takeaway. There is just something about Matthews’ body language that’s not there for me this year.”
Stay tuned, this is developing!
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