TORONTO (Mar. 15) — As much as I contend that he’ll never be a consistently big–game performer for the Maple Leafs, Auston Matthews is clearly hampered by… something. No one anticipated another 69–goal season. In the 109–year history of the Toronto franchise, only four players — Matthews, Rick Vaive, Dave Andreychuk and Gary Leeman — have cracked the 50–goal plateau. And, Vaive’s record of 54 from the 1981–82 season endured until Matthews topped it 40 years later. Still, few expected Matthews to become half the player he was a year ago.

If the No. 1 selection of the 2016 National Hockey League draft is fighting through a confining and restrictive injury, there’s your answer. He’ll return to form when he recovers. Likely not before next season. Conversely, if “market fatigue” is beginning to suppress performance, the Leafs are in trouble. BIG trouble. Though he came within a whisker of capturing the 4Nations event for the United States, Matthews has been largely unrecognizable with the Blue and White: three goals in his past 16 games, dating to Jan. 25 (in the same period, Leon Draisaitl of Edmonton has 14 goals). So, this needs to be asked: Has the letter ‘C’ on Auston’s jersey become an emotional anvil? In a hockey region thirsting for glory, yet anticipating heartache? Can Auston envision yet another playoff calamity for the beleaguered Core–4? Though a machine–like scorer during most regular seasons, Matthews has never warmed up in the heat. The all–encompassing word “pressure” seems to weigh on him. To thwart him.

This has been rather glaring through eight aborted playoff excursions. The Auston of October to April routinely withers as the Stanley Cup stakes increase. Though he’s the “best player” on the Leafs with respect to piling up goals, no hockey observer has ever seriously considered Matthews captain material. Except for the genius (Brendan Shanahan? Keith Pelley?) that decided to humiliate an actual captain, John Tavares, by ripping the letter off his jersey and handing it to Auston. Suffice to say, the switch hasn’t been productive. On this Saturday in mid–March — and though he has missed 15 games during the season with injury — Matthews sits 49th in NHL points; 47th in goals (with 23). Alex Ovechkin, who looks 75 years old, has 10 more tallies in the same number of starts.

AUSTON MATTHEWS SEEMED MORE COMFORTABLE WITH AN ‘A’ ON HIS MAPLE LEAFS JERSEY.

Matthews missed the morning skate but will dress for tonight’s unanticipated colossus against Ottawa at Scotiabank Arena. Should the visitors prevail in regulation time, the Leafs will be four points out of wild card territory in the Eastern Conference. For the record, the Senators finished 24 points in back of Toronto last season; as many as 42 points behind in 2021–22. So, the teams are motoring in opposite directions… even if the Leafs haven’t changed much. Toronto had 84 points after 65 games a year ago; 81 today. But, its two big gunners are quiet. William Nylander stands second in NHL goals scored (to Draisaitl) with 36, yet he continues to show up whenever so moved. Since notching a hattrick in Calgary on Feb. 4, Willie has three goals in 12 games. That’s six goals in the past 16 encounters for two players absorbing $24.75 million this season — only $14.25 million less than the original team salary cap ($39 million) in 2005–06. So, the Leafs need to determine the value that Matthews is providing, while evidently battling through physical malaise. If he cannot help the club and is only aggravating an injury, shut him down. The NHL isn’t big on “load management” (rampant among spoiled, pampered athletes in the NBA), but the playoffs are still a month in the distance. Get the friggin’ guy as healthy as possible.

If, as I suspect, emotional malaise is partly to blame, then once more: the Leafs are in trouble — now and in the immediate future. Again, Matthews has never been a big “spotlight” guy, even if paid as such. The Leafs require for him to somehow decode his DNA and start acting like one of the big boys at Stanley Cup time. For which the club and its fans have been waiting… interminably. No elite skater in franchise history has so struggled when chips are on the table. Not Charlie Conacher, Syl Apps, Ted Kennedy, Dave Keon, Darryl Sittler, Borje Salming, Wendel Clark, Doug Gilmour or Mats Sundin. All of whom elevated performance in the Cup chase very soon after joining the Blue and White. Matthews is approaching a full decade of comparative playoff apathy. That’s way too long. Something has to give. If he’s overwhelmed as the quasi–team leader and new captain, which fawning management believed would enhance him, the Leafs are stuck. No chance they’ll tear the ‘C’ off No. 34’s jersey. Even the diminutive Gilmour, with a pair of sore ankles, shlepped the Leafs through a pair of deep playoff runs in 1993 and 1994. He grew larger as the Cup tournament progressed (here and in Calgary, beforehand). Matthews plays a routinely small game after mid–April. I don’t think he’s appropriately wired to pull a Gilmour. Same with Nylander. Same with Mitch Marner. The playoff results are what they are. Nothing is going to change until the team changes.

Which has been the central theme of this website since the 2021 Cup debacle against Montreal.

Another option is finding a rabble–rousing linemate for Matthews. Remember how much ice Brady Tkachuk created for Auston during the 4Nations event? By barreling in on the forecheck like a wild man? None of the current Leafs perform in such a manner. Matthew Knies has no compuction toward planting his backside in front of opposition goalies. Many of his 24 goals have resulted from havoc created by his big body. Still, young Matthew is devoid of a nasty bone. I’ve often wondered how untouchable he might be if possessing a fraction of the mean streak Shanahan displayed throughout his Hall–of–Fame career (656 goals and three Stanley Cups with Detroit).

Even the most–gifted Maple Leafs remain playoff–soft.

A BAD RASH: Don’t be fooled by the sudden departure of Sportsnet fixture Arash Madani. He did nothing wrong. Rogers Communications let him go for the same reason as Bob McCown, Don Cherry, Glenn Healy, Doug MacLean, John Shannon and others: he started to make the money he’s earned. Nothing could be more detrimental to an employee at One Mount Pleasant. Or, for competitor, Bell Media. Human beings are nothing more than employee numbers at both enterprises. Arash will bounce back far–more strongly than his former network.

LOOK WHO TURNS 50 TODAY:

HAPPY MILESTONE BIRTHDAY TO ONE OF PAT QUINN’S TRUE PLAYOFF WARRIORS A GENERATION AGO, DARCY TUCKER. OH, HOW THE CURRENT LEAFS COULD USE HIS FIRE AFTER MID–APRIL.

EMAIL: HOWARDLBERGER@GMAIL.COM