It seems ridiculous to imagine the Toronto Maple Leafs sitting Auston Matthews while he’s on the cusp of getting his notching 70th goal of the season. Wednesday night, against the Tampa Bay Lightning, he has a chance to do something few have ever done. Almost everyone wants to see him do it. That said, there’s more at stake here than a single goal that Matthews may or may not get.
The Toronto Maple Leafs should have seriously considered not playing Matthews, even though scratching would have meant he ended the year with 69 goals.
The Distraction Isn’t Helping the Leafs
As the season winds down, the fact that everyone is talking about Matthews hitting 70 goals isn’t helping the team. He didn’t score as the Leafs allowed the Florida Panthers to come back and beat them 5-2. Part of that was likely because the focus had shifted. His potential goal will be the storyline of the Tampa Bay Lightning game, likely causing the coaching staff and players to make decisions that aren’t best for the Maple Leafs as they get set to enter a tough series against the Boston Bruins in Round 1 of the NHL Playoffs.
So too, this final game isn’t being played in front of Toronto fans. If Matthews hits the mark, he’ll feel good as will his teammates, but the reaction won’t be what it would have been had he reached the goal in Toronto. Sitting him also helps prevent Sheldon Keefe and the rest of the team from making plays they might not have otherwise made. Keefe admitted that he and the Leafs were feeding Matthews in the hopes he would get to 70. It’s a dangerous mentality and things could go incredibly wrong, both in the short-term and the long-term.
This last game shouldn’t be about Matthews’ goal. It should be about making sure the Leafs are playing the right way. They have a team coming up in the Boston Bruins they have a history of not being able to beat. They need Matthews at 100%, both mentally and physically. If he’s not, frankly, they’re screwed.
The Leafs Can Control the Narrative
If Matthews doesn’t play, he avoids the talk that comes with him not reaching the 70-goal marker. Both the team and the player can spin this story and say this wasn’t about a single person’s milestone. Instead, they can contend this was about the postseason and the entire roster. It was about Matthews being as healthy as he could be and not risking an injury in an otherwise meaningless game. It could be about their focus and attention being on the right things.
There are three possible outcomes here. Matthews plays and he hits it (hopefully early). Matthews doesn’t play and everyone moves on. Matthews plays and he misses, which will spark all sorts of conversations about the Hart Trophy, whether Matthews should be considered among the best in the league, how he’s feeling about his own game going into the playoffs and everything else fans and media in Toronto wants to blow way out of proportion.
Matthews can sit and say he’s always a team-first guy. Knowing his 70 goals will be a distraction, he can argue he wanted to remove that distraction from the last game of the season. It takes the guesswork out of what happens if he doesn’t score.
What’s the Worst Case Scenario?
Look at what the Carolina Hurricanes did in their final game of the season. In a meaningless game, they sat eight regulars. They lost 6-3 to the Columbus Blue Jackets and couldn’t have cared less because it gives those regulars one more day of rest and ensures their health going into the playoffs. The worst-case scenario here is that Matthews plays to reach the 70-goal marker and gets hurt.
Knock on wood that doesn’t happen, but it absolutely could. That would be a disaster of epic proportions, and for what? Everyone knows Matthews is one of the game’s great scorers. He doesn’t need one more goal to prove it.
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