Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon and Mark Messier share something rather incredible that seems so very far away from Auston Matthews.
All three have scored more goals per Stanley Cup playoff game than they have ever scored in their National Hockey League regular season careers.
Rarely do players, stars in particular, equal regular season numbers with playoff numbers — especially those with high end stats. But to surpass the goal numbers is simply remarkable.
In the case of Matthews, the Maple Leafs captain who has yet to find his way as a playoff goal scorer, his playoff numbers aren’t anywhere close to that of his goal-scoring statistics from regular seasons.
And even in a down season for him scoring wise such as this one, his playoff numbers have still dropped considerably this time around.
Matthews has two goals in nine playoff games this Stanley Cup season, this coming after scoring just one last year against Boston and no goals the year before that in the second round against the Florida Panthers.
In his last 19 playoff games, Matthews has three goals. Seven of those games went to overtime, and the Leafs won two of them. Over an 82-game stretch, three goals in 19 games is equivalent to a 13-goal season. In Matthews’ career, his seasonal scoring average is 52 goals.
Career-wise, Matthews has scored at a 32-goal pace at playoff time, down 20 goals from his usual scoring. The drop is even larger this year.
The biggest shock in this group of excellence might be the MacKinnon numbers. Never a giant goal-scorer like Matthews or Draisaitl, MacKinnon has averaged 34 goals over the course of his career, but has scored at a 47-goal pace in the post-season.
The Maple Leafs surely need a shot from their captain, especially now in this series with Florida. Sunday night — and every night after that this playoff season — will represent the biggest game of Matthews’ career. Can he cash in? Odds say no.
THIS AND THAT
There is one significant difference between having Anthony Stolarz in goal instead of Joseph Woll for the Leafs. Size aside, Stolarz is an excellent puck-handler, which Woll isn’t. And that plays directly into the Florida dump-and-chase forecheck game … Anyone who wondered why Leafs GM Brad Treliving did his due diligence on Mikko Rantanen at the trade deadline – asking Mitch Marner to waive his no-movement clause at the time — doesn’t need to wonder any more. Rantanen is having an all-time great playoff run with the Dallas Stars … The quiet feeling in the Leafs dressing room: This is Marner’s last run as a Leaf … Paul Maurice approaches playoff hockey as if it was a seven-round fight. You wear your opponent down in the early rounds, and work on what’s left of them at the end. Winning the first round of the fight doesn’t matter as much as surviving to the last round does. The Panthers already have gone hard at defenceman Chris Tanev and have knocked Stolarz out for possibly the entire series. They will continue … No one has turned their season around in a more impressive manner this year than the way Morgan Rielly has, which made the overtime goal scored Friday night hurt even more. The puck shot by Brad Marchand double deflected off Rielly’s body, sending it into the Leafs net … Marner, like Matthews, watches his numbers drop in the playoffs. But not similarly. Marner averages 27 goals in his career, just 16 per 82 at playoff time. He averages 92 points in regular season and 77 at playoff time … What has been impressive about the Matthews, Marner and Matthew Knies line throughout the playoffs? They don’t get scored on much at even strength. Just three goals against in nine games to date … William Nylander has basically the same scoring numbers, regular season or playoffs in his career. Just a touch more playoff goals and points than his regular season totals … Most explosive and erratic NHL player: Edmonton defenceman Evan Bouchard. He has been on for 14 goals at even strength and 12 goals against. That’s the most in two categories in the NHL … If I was a young Canadian player and had a chance to play on a world championship team with Sidney Crosby, MacKinnon and Marc-Andre Fleury, I’d be there in about a second. Just for the experience. And I wonder, as many do, how much MacKinnon will work on Crosby and try and talk him into moving from Pittsburgh to Colorado next season … I haven’t seen any real speed from Matthew Tkachuk in three games against the Leafs. He looks like he’s playing hurt just as his brother did in Round 1.
HEAR AND THERE
There are many who are horrified that Joel Quenneville is back coaching in the NHL, this time with the Anaheim Ducks. You know who isn’t horrified? Kyle Beach, the hockey player who was abused in the Chicago Blachhawks scandal that eventually cost Quenneville his job in Florida. More than a year ago, Beach told Quenneville he would not stand in the way of Quenneville’s return to NHL coaching. Quenneville talked to Beach the other day before being announced as the new Ducks coach. If Beach is OK with Quenneville coaching, who are any of us to disagree? … The best hockey coaches I’ve seen up close: 1. Scotty Bowman; 2. Al Arbour; 3. Bob Johnson; 4. Quenneville. Next on that list would be Jon Cooper, still coaching in Tampa Bay. Big difference between 1 and 2 on the list, and the rest of the list … The best Leafs coaches I’ve been around: 1. Pat Burns; 2. Pat Quinn … For those counting at the knockdowns, 17 NHL teams have changed coaches or are about to change coaches in the past 12 or coming months … The Buffalo Sabres can’t seem to do much right. They’ve just brought in the inexperienced Eric Staal to assist the underperforming GM Kevyn Adams. The two played together with the Carolina Hurricanes and isn’t that nice? What the Sabres need is senior management person– a Lou Lamoriello-Cliff Fletcher type of years gone by — to take over the operation, show them the way, then hire a general manager, then hire an assistant … Tom Wilson has to be on Team Canada for the Olympics, doesn’t he? Few players can impact a game in as many ways as Washington’s Wilson can …. The difficulty for GM Doug Armstrong and coach Cooper come next winter is determining who winds up at the bottom of Canadian roster up front: You have a lot of deserving players, Wilson, Mark Scheifele, Nick Suzuki, Robert Thomas, Wyatt Johnston, Macklin Celebrini, Connor Bedard to choose from, and that’s leaving off 4-Nations players Travis Konecny and Seth Jarvis, who will be in consideration. The Olympic rosters are 25 players, two more than 4-Nations rosters. They’ll probably be eight or nine legitimate choices for the two last forward spots on Team Canada.
SCENE AND HEARD
If John Schneider is worried about being fired as Blue Jays manager, he isn’t showing it. “The short answer is no,” Schneider said in his weekly appearance on the Blair and Barker radio show on Friday. “If I (was worried) I would be taking away from the players and the staff. Worrying about me is never the right thing to do, ever.” Schneider did admit “it gets frustrating at times … Do I feel pressure? Yeah, for sure. Everybody does. To put any outside noise on your plate is not what’s best for me, and not what’s best for the guys.” … Firing Schneider, if that’s even a consideration, would be the latest indictment of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins’ ability to put together a quality big league roster … The Blue Jays entered play Saturday with 19 wins. That’s 10th-best in the 15-team American League … How weak is the American League East this season? In the last 10 games, their AL East has a combined record of 21-29. The AL Central in that time: 35-15 … According to the New York Times, the Blue Jays can’t hit pitches down the middle of the plate and can’t hit pitches outside the strike zone. Which combined isn’t necessarily a good thing. And that reminds me of the great old Harry Neale line. We can’t win at home. We can’t win on the road. My failure as a coach is I haven’t found another place to play … Great as he may be, it’s pretty much impossible for the 33-year-old Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees to catch or pass Hank Aaron at 755 career home runs or Albert Pujols for 703 homers among right-handed hitters. Judge is 428 homers behind Aaron and 376 behind Pujols … How does GM Bill Guerin pick six defencemen to start from a group that includes Quinn Hughes, Charlie McAvoy, Jaccob Slavin, Zach Werenski, Adam Fox, Lane Hutson, Luke Hughes, Jake Sanderson, Noah Hanifin, Brock Faber, John Carlson and Cam Fowler for the U.S. Olympic team in February? … A question you couldn’t have had an answer for a month ago: What do The Pope and Kyle Lowry have in common? Both graduated from Villanova … And wasn’t there a Pope of Greenwich Village years ago? … It used to drive Masai Ujiri crazy that a Raptors team with Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby and Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl had all that talent and couldn’t succeed in the NBA. Now you’re seeing Siakam and Anunoby starring in the playoffs, and that must be driving Masai just a touch batty.
AND ANOTHER THING
Chet Lemon passed away the other day at the age of 70. What no one mentioned in the obituaries was the longtime outfielder played for the White Sox in the first Blue Jays game ever. He happened to go 0-for-4, with three strikeouts, on that frozen opening day of 1977 … Drafted into the WHL last week, Brock Lesnar’s son, Duke. Wonder if he’ll be a fighter like the old man … This has to excite Toronto Tempo people: Golden State played its first exhibition game in the WNBA and drew 17,428 … Paul LaPolice is the first head coach of Team Canada men’s flag football team. The sport is scheduled to make its Olympic debut in 2028. There’s already pressure on Team Canada to win a medal in Los Angeles. LaPolice has a 22-50 won-loss record as a CFL head coach … When he ran MLSE, Tim Leiweke told me that the easiest thing to fix was a Major League Soccer team. All you have to do is spend money the right way. Toronto FC is spending money the wrong way these days — with the second-highest payroll in MLS and just about the worst team in the league. It takes a certain skill to be this rich and this bad all at the same time … The London Knights are back in another OHL Final, and this time they’ve come in under the salary cap … I thought of this the other day when the story of the pranking of Shedeur Sanders came out. Years ago, back when we actually had personal phone books, my young kids somehow got hold of mine. They found Wayne Gretzky’s number in the book. They giggled a lot and thought about phoning him. I think they dialed. I don’t think anybody answered … The giant Mike Shaw would have turned 68 this week. He wrestled as Norman The Lunatic, Bastion Booger, (my personal favourite) Makhan Singh, Mad Monk and Klondike Mike in his career, mostly as a rather nasty piece of work … Happy birthday to Brad Marchand (37), Nancy Greene (82), Chris Berman (70), Ryan Getzlaf (40), Jerome Williams (52), Ulf Nilsson (75), Salvador Perez (35), Cam Newton (36), Alex Tuch (29), Samuel Dalembert (64), Jamison Battle (24), Adin Hill (29), Kardinal Offishall (49), Joey Loperfido (26) and Tito Santana (72) … And hey, whatever became of Jay McClement?
ssimmons@postmedia.com
X: @simmonssteve
