NHL: Auston Matthews & teammates – Source: Imagn
Auston Matthews’ postseason goalless drought extended to four games in Sunday night’s 2-0 shutout loss in Florida.
For almost any other player, four games wouldn’t even be considered a slump, but this is Matthews we’re talking about. The league’s best goal scorer has only two goals in 10 games in these playoffs, and to make matters worse, he just hasn’t looked dangerous on most nights.
Matthews has not appeared too concerned; however, that hasn’t stopped the media from asking him and his teammates about it. On Tuesday, it was his linemate, Mitch Marner’s turn to defend the captain.
Marner was asked what it would take for Matthews to break through and find the back of the net. The Toronto Maple Leafs shared the full media availability on YouTube.
“The greatest thing about it, I know, like everyone wants to produce, everyone wants to produce, everyone wants to score goals, especially himself,” Marner said (Timestamp: 3:36). “And he hasn’t let it get down on him at all. His mood, his energy, his demeanor in the locker room has been unbelievable through it all. So, you just gotta stay patient with it.
“Like I said, this is a hard team to score against. They’ve done it all year long. They’ve done it past years. We’re working for opportunities. We’ve had looks. They just haven’t dropped yet. And by any means, we can’t get aggressive with it and start cheating the game. That’s not what we do. That’s what we’ve not done all year. So they’ll start falling.
“But, Tones (Matthews) been great through it all. He’s, you know, he’s the same guy through it all, and that’s what you love to see out of him. And you know, we’re gonna keep working, try to keep getting our looks.”
Auston Matthews is in the first season of his four-year, $53,000,000 contract extension with the Maple Leafs, signed in 2023.
Auston Matthews needs to get a greasy goal
In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, nothing comes easy, and for Auston Matthews, that means he’ll need to get to the dirty areas to start scoring more postseason goals.
Former NHL star Mike Modano shared his thoughts on Matthews’ playoff production on the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast uploaded on X on Tuesday.
“The time and space is gone,” Modano said. “The goals he scores in the regular season aren’t going to be the goals he scores in playoffs.”
The 27-year-old’s last goal came on the power play in a 4-2 Game 6 win over the Ottawa Senators in Round 1.
He’ll look to snap his cold streak when the Maple Leafs host the Panthers in Game 5 of their second-round series on Wednesday in Toronto. The puck drops at 7 p.m. EST at Scotiabank Arena.
