TORONTO (May 10) — So long as the Toronto Maple Leafs were winning, there was no concern over Auston Matthews being the highest–paid “defensive center” in the Stanley Cup playoffs. As noted, Friday, on the always friendly Hockey Night In Canada pre–game show, Auston was “looking after his responsibilities away from the puck” and doing it very well. That Matthews has all of three goals in his past 13 playoff starts — two in nine games this spring — barely seemed to matter. Until Brad Marchand scored in overtime of Game 3, drawing the Maple Leafs back into a dog fight with the defending–champion Florida Panthers. Now, it starts to matter. A lot.

Matthews has erupted for zero goals in eight post–season games against Florida.

It always comes back to No. 34 in the spring; just part of the territory for cashing $13.25 million a season. Much more than needed to pay a defensive specialist. At some point (and we keep waiting… waiting… waiting…) Matthews will harness the Maple Leafs and pull a McDavid. A Draisaitl. A Crosby. Local media will go bananas over the “greatest Leaf” finally flourishing when it counts. Maybe it will happen tomorrow night in Sunrise and the Leafs will come home with a commanding (gulp!) 3–1 lead over the Panthers. Or, maybe it won’t happen. Not this month. Not next year. Perhaps never. I mean, precisely what indication, after nearly a decade, points to Matthews becoming a Stanley Cup warrior? Given that statistics normally do not lie, comparisons border on humiliating.

Matthews now has 25 goals in 63 playoff games (0.397 scoring percentage). He has 401 goals in 629 regular–season matches (0.638). By any measure, that is a precipitous decline once the Stanley Cup tournament begins.

“WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH YOU?” OR, SO IT SEEMS THAT WILLIAM NYLANDER IS ASKING AUSTON MATTHEWS.

Here’s how Auston (0.397) ranks against other Stanley Cup goal scorers:

Mario Lemieux — 76 goals in 107 games (0.710)
Mike Bossy — 85 goals in 129 games (0.659)
Maurice Richard — 82 goals in 162 games (0.621)
Wayne Gretzky — 122 goals in 208 games (0.587)
Leon Draisaitl — 46 goals in 82 games (0.561)
Jari Kurri — 106 goals in 200 games (0.530)
Brett Hull — 103 goals in 202 games (0.510)
Reggie Leach — 47 goals in 94 games (0.500)
Joe Sakic — 84 goals in 172 games (0.488)
Alexander Ovechkin — 76 goals in 158 games (0.481)
Connor McDavid — 39 goals in 82 games (0.476)
Mikko Rantanen — 42 goals in 90 games (0.467)
Mark Messier — 109 goals in 236 games (0.462)
Guy Lafleur — 58 goals in 128 games (0.453)
Glenn Anderson — 93 goals in 225 games (0.413)

Again, numbers do not lie. Particularly in this playoff year, where two goals in nine games earns Matthews a 0.222 scoring percentage — well below his modest career pace. He now sits beneath teammate William Nylander (26 goals in 63 games, 0.413) and marginally ahead of John Tavares (28 goals in 71 games, 0.394). Still, look around. Browse your favorite media site. You won’t find a syllable, today, written about Auston struggling yet again to score in the playoffs. It seems perfectly acceptable for the National Hockey League’s highest–paid player from the regular season to “fly under the radar” while Nylander, Tavares, Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly outgun him (Mitch Marner, Max Pacioretty, Max Domi and Oliver Ekman–Larsson also have two goals). Where are the mainstream media voices who claimed, as recently as last season, that Matthews was the “best hockey player in the world?” It’s crickets out there. Does Auston seriously merit another free pass from reporters, columnists and pundits? Clearly, we understand, from Sportsnet and TSN, the team–owned outlets. So, nothing from such Auston accolytes as Mark Masters, Chris Johnston, Justin Bourne and Luke Fox. But, the local newspaper scribes? Isn’t anyone paying attention?* Or, is it not even noticeable anymore when Matthews pulls up lame in the spring?
*Not surprisingly, Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun recognized the issue in his post–Game 3 columns.

Others will claim Matthews is performing well in the playoffs, with 58 points in 64 career games (.906).

Once more, let’s look at comparisons:

Wayne Gretzky — 382 points in 208 games (1.84)
Mario Lemieux — 172 points in 107 games (1.61)
Nathan MacKinnon — 125 points in 95 games (1.32)
Mikko Rantanen — 116 points in 90 games (1.29)
Mark Messier — 295 points in 236 games (1.25)
Mike Bossy — 160 points in 129 games (1.24)
Bobby Orr — 92 points in 74 games (1.24)
Nikita Kucherov — 171 points in 152 games (1.13)
Sidney Crosby — 201 points in 180 games (1.12)
Guy Lafleur — 134 points in 128 games (1.11)
Jean Beliveau —176 points in 162 games (1.09)
Joe Sakic — 188 points in 172 games (1.09)
Mitch Marner — 62 points in 66 games (.939)
William Nylander — 58 points in 63 games (.920)

In every example, Matthews comes up shy.

Of course, there’s an injury. There’s always an injury with Auston in the playoffs. Remember the excuses last year after the Bruins prevailed in the opening round? Concussion. Bad wrist. Neither of which hampered him while poring in 69 goals during the regular schedule. This year, it’s been a season–long trilogy: that Matthews regressed from 69 to 33 goals had to be injury related. There’s nary an insinuation that this guy just doesn’t have the drive and determination to rank among the legendary names listed above. Apologists will say “leave him alone; the club is making a good run and getting goals from other sources.” No one ever says (or writes) “expect Matthews to come up big once the playoffs start.” It just never happens. But, now, it begins to matter for the Leafs. Again.

When Knies sped in toward Sergei Bobrovsky on a partial breakaway in overtime, I was certain the visitors would grab a 3–0 choke–hold on this series. Even Chris Cuthbert, in the telecast booth at Amerant Bank Arena, set up the big moment. “Here’s Knies… for the win!” Cuthbert exclaimed as the young winger sent a low backhand toward Bobrovsky, who made a sharp save with his right pad. It appeared to suddenly demoralize the Leafs, as the Panthers swarmed to the attack with more than a minute of offensive–zone time before Brad Marchand (who else?) fired a wrist shot that carromed off Morgan Rielly and past Joseph Woll. Instantly focusing the spotlight more directly on Matthews than had the Leafs garnered that 3–0 series edge. With Toronto’s lead now halved — and the Panthers certain to draw another boisterous gathering — isn’t it time for Car 34 to pull out of the garage?

We’ve been waiting, patiently, since the spring of 2017. Haven’t we?

IT’S ALL BACKGROUND NOISE TO MLSE

My old pal, Joe Warmington (a.k.a. The Night Scrawler), jumped into the sorry and lost cause of Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph in his Friday Toronto Sun column (he is responsible for the above photo). Naturally, the long–time voice of the Leafs and his veteran radio sidekick were confined to a studio and a TV monitor while the hockey club played Game 3 in Sunrise. “Like they did for the first round, when three games were on the road in Ottawa,” Warmington wrote, “they are in Toronto, broadcasting from the TSN studio near McCowan Rd. and Hwy. 401.”

This is particularly egregious given the posse of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment executives likely on hand Friday, including Ed The Conqueror, Tony Staffieri, Larry Tanenbaum, Dale Lastman, Keith Pelley… and who knows how many others? Which is clearly their prerogative. As I posted on Facebook and ‘X’: “For those wondering if Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph are in Florida with the Leafs, don’t bother. Considering all the Rogers, Bell, OMERS and MLSE executives along for the ride, there was no room on the airplane. So, it’s a TV monitor, again, for the club’s Hall-of-Fame broadcaster.” Warmington felt uncomfortable heading down the same direct path as yours truly. “…Berger has actually said harsher things on his popular blog in which he does not hold back on how ridiculous he thinks it is. The one thing I don’t want to do by following what Berger has been pointing out is make it worse and have some executive say the heck with them and let’s apply an even higher hurdle like U.S. President Donald Trump might do. We don’t want that. Instead, the goal is to tell the story of what’s happening with a view that maybe somebody at Sportsnet has a change of heart and sends the radio team to the next road games.”

If it were only that simple, Joe. The fat cats opened their wallets to Bowen and Ralph just once… and only after being shamed into flying the broadcasters to Florida for the second playoff round in 2023. Bowen mistakenly identified Morgan Rielly as the Leafs player that eliminated Tampa Bay in overtime, rather than John Tavares. Why? Because the restrictive television image available to him and Ralph immediately showed the ecstatic defenseman. Once the fallout on social media occurred, the geniuses at MLSE chose to take no more chances. Until last year, against Boston. Then, again, in this longer playoff march by the Leafs. Little do their myopic brains understand how essential it is for a radio broadcaster, in particular, to be live on scene, with a view of the entire ice surface.

Unlike a television play caller, Bowen must paint the whole picture for his audience. Which is impossible when confined to a TV monitor more than 2,350 kilometers away. With no access to the players on either club or feel for the arena environment. The hifalutin execs at Rogers and Bell do not understand — or care about — any of this. No amount of prodding, polite or otherwise, will change the minds of these bean–counting robots. Anything to shave a few pennies off the budget… while adopting no self restrictions with regard to flights, accommodations and golf games. It’s the way of the corporate hockey world here in town. And, it sickens my stomach.

HOW CAN IT BE 55 YEARS? MAY 10, 1970…

It was May 22, 1988 — a spectacular spring afternoon in Boston. Several hours before Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final between the Bruins and Edmonton Oilers. While strolling along the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, I came across an 8 x 10–inch cardboard copy of the iconic photo (above), snapped just more than 18 years earlier, that showed Bobby Orr, horizontal to the ice at Boston Garden, an instant after scoring on St. Louis goalie Glenn Hall, in overtime, to win the 1970 Stanley Cup. It now hangs proudly in my condominium bedroom. Thinking that Orr would likely be at the Garden for the Bruins–Oilers match that night, I purchased the photo, determined to have it signed. Arriving at the empty Garden 90 minutes before the game, I approached Ed Sandford in the main press box. Ed had been a left–winger with the Bruins, Detroit and Chicago from 1947–56. In 1988, he was the supervisor of off–ice officials for Bruins home games — 59 years old that night (he died Oct. 26, 2023, at 95). I showed Sandford the photo and wondered if he knew where Orr might be watching the hockey game that night.

Without hesitation, he said “come with me”.

I followed Ed along the last row of the steep upper–balcony that stretched the length of the ice on the east side of the Garden. We stopped near center–ice and Ed told me to “wait here”. A few moments later, I heard a person walking toward me in a private box slightly above my head. It was Orr, then 40 years of age (today he is 77). “Hi, Howard, nice to meet you,” he said, smiling and extending his right hand. “I think I’ve seen that photo before. Let me have it.” Seconds later, it re–emerged with the inscription, as seen above. “Enjoy the game tonight. I appreciate you coming over.” What I remember most about that remarkable moment is how Orr made me feel as if I’d known him all his life. I thanked him profusely and walked back to my press box seat with Sandford, whom I also did not forget for his kindness. Eight days later (May 30, 1988) I began my radio career at CJCL AM–1430 here in Toronto — to become, in September 1992, Canada’s first all–sports station. What a fond and remarkable memory.

EMAIL: HOWARDLBERGER@GMAIL.COM