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This has been five years and 24-hour tumultuous hours in the making. The first exceptional Stanley Cup playoff night for Auston Matthews.
A personal tribute of sorts to the captain John Tavares, who is home nursing a concussion and an injured left knee.
It was a night in which Matthews flexed his chest and dominated the Montreal Canadiens. And you couldn’t stop watching him. The way the best players perform when the lights are brightest.
Matthews scored. He set up. He hit. He won faceoffs. He created more offence. He won loose-puck battles. And he did those emotional dances and fist pumps that have become new to his game, in this, his greatest season. But this night, so meaningful in so many, was a tour de force for Matthews.
And it so meaningful for a Maple Leafs team that has invested its future in him and has watched him grow year by year, from goal scorer to player to dominant goal scorer to physical presence to NHL difference-maker. It has been one year and one step at a time, each year getting better, growing, learning, this one being his best.
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The Leafs couldn’t afford to lose Saturday night. They couldn’t go down 2-0 to the Montreal Canadiens after dropping the opener and losing Tavares for at least two weeks and maybe more. They had to beat the Canadiens for the first time in the post-season in 19,734 days. Now they have to do it again on Monday night.
And like the champion wearing his belt, Matthews walked into the ring and he did everything but put his hand to his ear and ask for applause. There was no one, of course, there to applaud at the Scotiabank Arena. But across the city and the country and in a lot of back yards there were Leafs fans celebrating, fans enjoyed that Matthews left his calling card behind.
This is the beginning of his playoffs, really, of their playoffs. This is the beginning that matters. This is what he can do and how he can do it and he had to know what happened to his friend Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton on Friday night. He knew they came away empty and defeated and are now under severe pressure.
Now all is even as the Leafs head to Montreal for games on Monday and Tuesday and the pressure switches to the Canadiens. Matthews was strong in Game 1, but didn’t score and didn’t change the game, didn’t deliver the kind of 5-1 victory he delivered Saturday night. He had a goal and two assists. He could have had five or so points if he hadn’t hit a post earlier on or if a couple of his setups had been finished properly.
This was Brad Marchand-like. This was Nathan MacKinnon-like. This was Nikita Kucherov-like. Now, it’s Auston Matthews-like.
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Matthews set the tone but he was by no means alone. That’s the beauty of hockey. It’s never about one player unless that one player is a goaltender. But one player can make an enormous difference when he has all-world talent. But the Leafs had special play up and down their lineup.
They got a goal off a late line change by Jason Spezza on a forecheck turnover by Zach Bogosian. Spezza from Bogosian. Has there ever been one of those before?
They got a goal on the power play — yep a power-play goal. And more important than that, a goal off a slapshot on the power play. That’s new.
Earlier, Matthews had scored on the kind of play coaches draw up for on a board and no one believes will ever work. Justin Holl wasn’t shooting to score on Carey Price. He was shooting to draw a rebound. Matthews took the puck off Price’s pads and scored his first goal of the series.
Matthews then began the three-way passing play that resulted in the Rasmus Sandin goal that was curiously challenged. And in the third period, again on the power play, it no longer dreadful, Matthews rang another puck off the post, and William Nylander took advantage by roofing the rebound past a sprawled out, overplayed, Price.
“I think Auston was our best player,” said Spezza, who was part of a stronger Game 2 effort for the Leafs. Spezza said it was great to see him score. It picks up the entire bench.
The Leafs didn’t have Tavares on the bench or in the dressing room and don’t know when he will rejoin the team in any way if only to visit. His knee is at two weeks away from being ready. Maybe longer. And the concussion time frame, well, with concussions you never know.
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Coach Sheldon Keefe liked what he saw from the Leafs Saturday night. He liked the way the team responded in the 5-1 win. He liked the way they absolutely owned the puck in the second period and a lot of the third. He liked the depth of his lineup. Spezza scored from the fourth line, Matthews from the first, Nylander from the second, Alex Kerfoot scored into the empty net. One goal from each unit, although that was slightly distorted by the amount of power-play time the Leafs were given.
But it was Matthews, more than anyone else, who stood tall. Keefe said he was “very complete, physical on the puck, made plays, played with all sorts of authority and scored a goal for us.”
He could have said he dominated. Matthews did that for the very first time in the playoffs, dominated his part of 60 minutes, 200 feet, all him. The Leafs couldn’t have gotten any better news than that emergence on Saturday night.
ssimmons@postmedia.com
twitter.com/simmonssteve
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiWmh0dHBzOi8vdG9yb250b3N1bi5jb20vc3BvcnRzL2hvY2tleS9uaGwvc2ltbW9ucy1tYXR0aGV3cy10b3VyLWRlLWZvcmNlLWRvbWluYXRlZC10aGUtaGFic9IBiAFodHRwczovL3Rvcm9udG9zdW4uY29tL3Nwb3J0cy9ob2NrZXkvbmhsL3NpbW1vbnMtbWF0dGhld3MtdG91ci1kZS1mb3JjZS1kb21pbmF0ZWQtdGhlLWhhYnMvd2NtL2NkMjNhZDJlLTA1YTctNDk0ZC1hNTY1LTIyY2RhZTViNTA4My9hbXAv?oc=5
2021-05-23 03:31:59Z
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