"The Toronto Maple Leafs haven't even been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs for 24 hrs and the drama has begun. While everybody's fingers have been pointed at Jake Gardiner on Thursday morning, there's another player who while not making any huge mistakes, was almost invisible for a big chunk of the series. Auston Matthews was held to just one goal and one assist during the series and NHL Insider Nick Kypreos believes it's more than just injury that stunted the forwards performance. Kypreos stated on Thursday morning during an appearance on Sportsnet 590 that Babcock has lost his trust in Auston Matthews. Here's what Kypreos had to say:"He's just set in his way. Babcock is set in the way. It was just one of those things where he never wanted Matthews and (Mitch) Marner together at any point in the regular season, and if he did, it was almost to show people 'this is why I don't want it, because it won't work.' For whatever reason -- there has to be a strong bond between a coach and his best players; there has to be a trust. And Babcock didn't have it with Marner at the beginning of the season -- that's well documented -- but at the end, Marner became a real go-to-guy for Babcock. It was almost like that Freaky Friday where Matthews and Marner completely switched.
Last year, and going to this year, Matthews was the guy, and toward the end, Babcock lost Matthews. I don't know what happened but he lost him, and there was no trust anymore. And then, Matthews can't start a hockey game, and he can't start a period, he can't start a power play off a TV timeout, and for whatever reason, Babcock lost Matthews, and that played a key part. Now, he's injured, and that of course you have to consider, but I just watched [Matthews'] body language throughout the last few games here, and going into the regular season, and you're sitting here going, 'That's more than the injury; something is not right here with Matthews,' and I think that needs to be addressed as well."What do you think of Kypreos' comments?
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