Auston Matthews making meaningful contributions beyond goal scoring

Auston Matthews has scored just seven goals through 17 games, a surprising low tally for last season's Rocket Richard winner, but the Toronto star has become a consistent two-way performer and the Maple Leafs look stronger, and potentially better prepared for the playoffs, because of it.

On the latest episode of 'In the Mentions', Omar hails the Joseph Holl love-in, asks when Josh Ho-Sang will sign an NHL contract with the Leafs, and takes stock of where the team is at after 20% of the season.

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Video Transcript

So heading into this season, a lot of us assumed that Auston Matthews would have the best goal scoring season of his career, maybe 60, even 65 goals. And he just hasn't been at that firing rate so far. But does that really matter? I mean, yes, Auston Matthews is the goal scoring wizard, and, you know, his scoring overall at 5 on 5 has been down.

But something that I've noticed is actually how better he's been defensively. You know, when it comes to his line in particular, when they're getting a lot of offensive zone pressure, it's generally the strong work that he's been doing along the boards, where he's actually faking out the opposition, doing some quick starts, you know, really driving the boards and really, really being deceptive with the puck.

And to be honest, when you think about it-- and when it comes to the entire dialogue around the team itself-- the main thing that a lot of people have talked about is how the team needs to stop focusing on individual success and do things for the team. Because that's what leads to winning, winning not only the regular season, but in the playoffs, and so on and so forth.

Does it really matter that Matthews isn't scoring as much, if it's leading to the team getting better and getting more chances? Do we only have to rely on Auston Matthews to score goals? I think there's been a lot of evidence this season that shows, no, we don't need to be.

And the thing is, is just because he's not getting on the score sheet every night doesn't mean that he's not contributing positively for the team. And if you ask me, I'd rather Auston Matthews be a really good, reliable, two-way forward than just be a goal scorer that, you know, is unreliable in his own end. Because hey, at the of the day, that's what's going to be-- that's what's going to matter in the playoffs.