Not quite, Auston Matthews.
In the final game of the regular season, the Toronto Maple Leafs center was held off the scoreboard against the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 6-4 Leafs loss. He finishes the campaign with 69 goals, the most in a season since Mario Lemieux’s 69 tallies in 1995-96.
Matthews had the chance to record the 15th 70-goal season in NHL history and be the first one to do so since Alexander Mogilny and Teemu Selanne scored 76 times in 1992-93.
Auston Matthews' regular season goal campaign comes to an end at 69 👏 pic.twitter.com/cBQrkVtnSo
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 18, 2024
The 26-year-old finishes the regular season with a career high in goals and points (107). He leads all NHLers this season in goals, with 12 more than Florida Panthers forward Sam Reinhart’s 57.
On the April 13 episode of The Hockey News Pre-Game Show, Michael Traikos and David Alter discussed Matthews’ goal-scoring abilities in relation to his hockey career to date (text lightly edited for length and clarity):
Michael Traikos: Dave, you’ve seen him all season long. I’ve covered him since he was a world junior player and at the World Championships and at the World Cup. I’ve seen him grow. Is this the best we’ve seen Auston Matthews? Is this the most confident we’ve seen him with his offensive ability?
David Alter: It’s tough to argue that this isn’t the best. I mean, he does seem to be getting better with each season, with the exception of last year. But the belief was that he was hurt, and he was still putting up well above-average numbers for a star and was doing that not really feeling 100 percent.
It’s a marvel at this point. When you got players, and you’ve got teammates and players from other teams, just kind of talking about how in awe they are of someone being able to put this many amount of goals in a modern era of hockey, it really is astounding.
Everything is kind of evolving that you always kind of wondered, “How is the offense going to continue to go?” And so he’s finding new ways to do it. The equipment’s getting better, too. I’m sure there are always secrets about his stick that we don’t know and things like that. But it’s one thing to have that. It’s another way to be able to execute, and certainly, that’s what Auston Matthews is doing.
Michael Traikos: You mentioned he’s healthy this year, only has missed one game. You really have to go back to his rookie year, where he played all 82 games, to find a year where he hasn’t missed significant time. Like last year, he played 74. The year before, 73. Fifty-two, and I guess we’re talking about the year with COVID, but you know, he generally misses some time, whether it’s with a back injury or wrist injury or whatever. A healthy Auston Matthews does damage.
David Alter: For sure. I mean, let’s just look at it on a point-per-game basis. So go back to that ’19-20 season (which got cut off due to the COVID-19 pandemic). He played 70. And his numbers there were pretty wild, like he was three goals away from 50 at that point. So he probably should have three 60-goal seasons. And so he would have at least set that new benchmark there. And then, in a 56-game season, he played 52 and was putting up wild numbers. You could argue that it was just playing Canadian teams-
Michael Traikos: Forty-one goals and 52 games. That’s insane.
David Alter: It was. I mean, again, he was playing against just the Canadian teams, and outside of Edmonton, there were not great teams-
Michael Traikos: Carey Price led the Montreal Canadiens to the Stanley Cup final that year. Connor Hellebuyck, was he a Vezina candidate that year?
David Alter: Yes, though it just goes to show you it was a weird year, right? Like it really was. Look at Montreal after that. But anyway, I’ll digress.
Auston Matthews is a marvel, and he continues to find crazy ways to put the puck in the net. Fifty even-strength goals. And he has one empty-net goal this year, too.
Michael Traikos: The 50 even-strength might be more impressive than if he gets 70. Like he’s not just relying on empty-netters; he’s not just relying on the power play.
David Alter: And these goals aren’t happening to make it 6-2. They’re giving them the lead. They’re the first goals of the game. They’re the changing-lead games; they’re the game-breaker goals.
Related: Where Leafs’ Auston Matthews Ranked in Situational Scoring Earlier This Season
Related: Pre-Game Show: Is This the Best Version of Auston Matthews? Plus Toughest First-Round Matchups, Coyotes and More
News Summary:
- One Goal Short of 70: Is This Still the Best We've Seen of Auston Matthews?
- Check all news and articles from the latest NHL updates.