Auston Matthews goes for 70.
The Leafs superstar is chasing history as the season concludes. Can he get there?
The truest rite of passage as a sports fan?
It is, in my opinion, watching milestones set when you were young, be broken.
And on Tuesday night, Toronto’s Auston Matthews did just that, scoring his 66th goal of the season, surpassing Alex Ovechkin’s record of 65 for active players (which he achieved during the 2007/2008 season, seventeen years ago).
So it goes - yes, in my own way, I feel old.
But while Ovechkin marches ever-closer to Wayne Gretzky’s all-time scoring record (as of this writing, he is just 42 goals away), Matthews is chasing down history of his own - as he looks to become, potentially, just the ninth player in NHL history to put up 70 in a single season (something even Ovi, at his peak, never achieved).
Those eight players? They are a “who’s-who” short-list that includes some of the sport’s all-timers, from Gretzky and Mario Lemieux to Brett Hull.
Matthews? No, he’s not on that level just yet. But at 26, scoring at a “mini-generational” rate and in the thick of his prime, he is on a trajectory that could see him enter that broader conversation over the next few years.1
I mean, it is already a safe bet that, should he chose to stay in Toronto until his early-thirties, at minimum, he will be, statistically, the Greatest Leaf Ever by the time all is said and done.
But I’m getting ahead of myself - 70 isn’t a guarantee, is it?
And (as of publishing time) there are still four regular season games left.
Although, to be fair, it isn’t some big mystery.
Chances are? Four goals in four games? That’s easy money for Matthews, who has scored in six straight and for the better part of a month now, has looked utterly determined to reach this mark (albeit, with a season shooting percentage three-percent higher than his career average).
And if not? He’ll make it tremendously entertaining, if nothing else - making the exceptional look simple is, after all, kind of Matthews’ MO.
But even if he falters, comes up short, even if (gasp) the Leafs decide to sit him over the next week, in the interest of having him better-rested for the playoffs, it would be foolish to write his season off as a “failure” or a let-down (in classic Toronto media/Leafs-opposition fashion).
Instead, to watch Matthews this season is to see a player operating at the apex of his powers. Come season’s end, he will win his third goal-scoring title, his third Rocket in four years.
And yeah, although he hasn’t seen much chatter in the MVP race this year, he seems primed to receive some down-ballot votes for the Hart, at the very least and should be in the Selke discussion, as well.
His overall game, that finely tuned.
A defensive stalwart down the middle, an even-strength dynamo, a pure scorer who has vigorously expanded his shot-selection toolbox, making him a legitimate threat on either end of the ice, a combination few players, if any, can evenly match.
As is true with all athletes, especially those like Matthews, who are in the cut-above celebrity stratosphere, there will always be questions or doubts that linger - whether it is discussion over his previous legal troubles or those who simply can’t stand the Leafs (or their media coverage, understandably) and so chose to deny, wholesale, acknowledgment of his success.
But it is usually the victor who has the last laugh.
Or in this case, the possible 70-goal man.
Sport “generations” can be a wildly imprecise thing. Case in point, is Matthews really the best scorer of his era, while the to-be greatest of all time in Ovechkin is still playing? No, right? At least, that’s my take - this confusing, it shouldn’t be.
A great article on Auston Matthews. I hope the Leafs can make it to the Stanley Cup Final. I'd take that over 70 goals, every day of the week.