Auston Matthews, ladies and gentlemen. Who knew that when the Leafs won the NHL's draft lottery back in 2016 that their 2016 1st overall pick would have turned out to be as dominant as he has been from his first NHL game straight through to his 407th?
On Tuesday night, Matthews did something that hasn't been done in a decade and became one of only 3 active players in the NHL to reach 60 goals, joining Steven Stamkos and Alex Ovechkin. Talk about modern sniper royalty. The most impressive thing about Matthews' 60-goal season, he only played 73 games. Simply unreal.
There are some other peripheral stats that outline what an incredible season the 24-year-old has had, but the one that really sticks out to me is the fact that Matthews has hit 13 posts/crossbars as well - some on wiiiiide open nets. Of course, that's going to happen with a release as quick as Auston's and it didn't exactly hamper him too much. But why was that the item that stuck out? Because had he converted on those chances, he'd have scored 73 goals in 73 games. The kid is an alien.
Matthews, even though he is excited to have reached such an impressive individual milestone, remains focused on the games that matter. It's all about the playoffs in his mind and there's only one milestone that really matters. Lord Stanley's beautiful silver chalice.
