Auston Matthews says Maple Leafs were ‘flat from the start’ in loss to Wild

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ homestand got off to a rocky start on Monday, falling 6-3 to the Minnesota Wild.

It was a tough result for a team looking to climb their way back into playoff contention amidst a recent strong stretch of games. Speaking to media after the loss, Auston Matthews said his team never really got in it, crediting Minnesota blueliners Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber for their two-way performance.

“I feel like we were just flat from the start of the game,” Matthews said. “We didn’t really have our legs, couldn’t really get our forecheck going, and they controlled the play. Obviously those two guys back there control a lot of play, are deceptive and very shifty, and it just didn’t seem like we had the legs that we needed tonight.”

Hughes and Faber finished the night with two assists apiece and both played team-high minutes, with Hughes leading the way with 26:33 TOI. A new addition on the Wild’s back-end, Matthews spoke about how Hughes can be a real challenge to take on.

“He plays a lot of minutes, he’s elusive, and like I said, he just controls most of the play,” Matthews said. “He makes such good passes, they hang on to pucks. It’s hard to get your forecheck established in the neutral zone, when you’re trying to get structure, those guys are skilled and talented enough where they can break that structure and break that pressure.”

Despite the loss, Matthews came away with a goal and an assist, enough to put him past Börje Salming for fourth on the Maple Leafs all-time points leaderboard. Matthews acknowledged that these individual accolades take a back seat when the team is down, but spoke about what it means to be in that company.

“Yeah, it’s tough to put that stuff into perspective just with the game going on, but obviously I’m very honoured,” Toronto’s captain said. “He’s a guy that did a lot for this organization, the city, the franchise, and has a very rich history here. So it’s pretty cool.”

With 769 career points, Matthews needs 89 points to tie the next player on the list, Dave Keon, who sits third all-time with 858 points. While Matthews may have already passed Mats Sundin as the franchise’s all-time top goalscorer, Sundin still holds the most points in Leafs history, with 987 tallied in the blue and white sweater.