Saturday's game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets had a little bit of everything, with plenty of goals, some dazzling saves, some feistiness and the night was capped off with a little bit of history being made as Auston Matthews set a new franchise record for the Maple Leafs.
When Auston Matthews scored his 40th goal of the season tonight, he also reached an impressive 600 career points! He is now the 8th player in franchise history to reach this historic milestone alongside his best friend and linemate Mitch Marner, who reached the milestone on January 14th. Marner had become the fastest Maple Leaf to 600 career points only taking him 548 games, but knew Matthews would break his record eventually. Thirteen days later, Matthews did exactly that, and it only took him 527 games. Little did Marner know he would be setting Matthews up for point number 600, but who else though, am I right? Marner was even the one who secured the puck for Matthews. Here's the goal below!
Not only is Matthews now the fastest Maple Leaf to reach 600 career points, he has now reached 40+ goals six times in his career and has five consecutive 40+ goal seasons! Keep in mind that he is only twenty-six years old and has many more seasons ahead of him in the league.
It was a night to remember for many Leaf fans. From a good goal being called back and an unsuccessful coaches challenge, to Ryan Reaves scoring in his first game back in six weeks, to Simon Benoit scoring his first goal as a Leaf, and even John Tavares snapping his nine game point drought, but nobody will forget Matthews recording 600 career points.
The win for the Leafs marks their 3rd consecutive win and their 4th win in their last 5 games. The Leafs are heating up, folks! Unfortunately, they won't be able to continue to ride that momentum as they're now officially on their bye week with the NHL's All-Star weekend on the horizon later this week.
