Auston Matthews wows immediately in Maple Leafs return

After it was finally made official that Auston Matthews would indeed make his return to the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup on Wednesday versus San Jose, the star centre told the media that he was bracing for an adjustment period after another lengthy absence in his young career.

“It’s going to be fast out there,” he explained.

Perhaps so.

When you can do the extraordinary from essentially a standstill, though, it doesn’t matter much.

From the space he carved out for himself from the off wing on the team’s No. 1 power play unit before suffering a minor separation of his shoulder last month, Matthews set up one and scored another in the first period, dotting up the scoresheet before even getting a proper feel of the game.

On the first, he served as the axis point between the deadly Mitch Marner-John Tavares combination:

And on the second, Matthews proved that his shoulder injury has not remotely impeded his ability to shoot the puck, as he absolutely whipped one by Aaron Dell:

With his comments before the game, Matthews was either looking to minimize expectations or hasn’t at all been paying attention to his own stats.

He has goals in all four games where he’s returned from injury.

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