Craig Berube Opens Up About Auston Matthews' Recent Offensive Struggles

Ahead of their big game against the Ottawa Senators later tonight, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube shuffled his lines in an attempt to shake things up and potentially reawaken a sleeping dragon.

That sleeping dragon would be none other than Auston Matthews, who by his very high standards is having a subpar season with just 23 goals and 56 points in 50 games.

The former MVP and Rocket Richard winner is coming off a 69-goal campaign last year and 60 goals in 2021-22 while also topping over the 100-point threshold both times.

Unfortunately things haven't gone his way this year as he's trending for a career-low totals in goals scored. Matthews has just 3 goals over his last 16 games but at the very least is contributing with 15 assists during that same stretch.

Craig Berube was asked about Matthews' offensive struggles this season, especially this late in the year and how that affects the team, as reported by Nick Barden of The Hockey News:

"It weighs on everybody. A player like that, he wants to help the team by putting the puck in the net. Listen, I said it before, he's getting the opportunities. That hasn't really changed from last year," Berube said on Saturday morning.

He later added that while the goals aren't piling up as they've done in the past, he's doing everything else right and has become a very dependable and responsible 2-way centre capable of going head to head with the opposition's best, as evidenced in their last game when he was tasked against Aleksander Barkov:

"It's just, it's not going in as much this year. But his overall game for me, I go off last game, he did a great job defensively going up against (Aleksander) Barkov, who's one of the best in the league. He's doing a lot of good things. We just got to stick with it, like the goal scoring, he's getting the chances. He's got to keep shooting and we need him to play 200 feet."

The new lines at today's morning skate should reflect a change that Berube wants to see from the team as whole but could also be looking at his top guys to carry the load on their respective lines.

Mitch Marner was taken off of Matthews' line and was skating alongside John Tavares and Bobby McMann, William Nylander was shifted to the third line with Scott Laughton and Calle Jarnkrok, while Matthews was centering Matthew Knies and Max Domi.

Look for the Maple Leafs to handle their business tonight against the surging Senators who are within striking distance of a top-3 playoff spot in the Atlantic Division. Matthews has scored 24 goals and 47 points in 34 career games against Ottawa so perhaps this is the ripest of times for the captain to get out of his funk.