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Steve Simmons sounds off on Leafs' Usage of Auston Matthews: 'A disgrace to hockey'
Photo credit: Sam Navarro - Imagn Images
Toronto columnist Steve Simmons eviscerated the Maple Leafs on Thursday for how they've used Auston Matthews of late, citing it as 'a disgrace to hockey'.
A massive reason as to why the Toronto Maple Leafs have struggled so much this season is due to their abysmal power play that ranked 27th league-wide ahead of Thursday's clash in Carolina, at just a 15.15% success rate.
The Leafs have generally had one of the league's best man advantages in recent years, but the power play has disappointed under assistant coach Marc Savard's watch, and this year is no different.
Perhaps the most perplexing part of their struggles is that Auston Matthews has just 1 power play goal on the season. Last year he tallied 10, which was his lowest total since his sophomore season, but he has averaged 13 per season since 2018-19.
One reason why that might be is because the Leafs are using him as the quarterback on their 5-forward unit at the moment, rather than using his best attribute - his one-timer. This usage is what Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons believes is a "disgrace to hockey".
We've seen in our lifetime, what I would say are 4 or 5 absolute elite goal scorers, and Auston Matthews is one of those guys. What in [God's name] he's doing at the point of the power play is a disgrace to hockey. We're talking about a top-3 shooter in the NHL and he's not in position, he has one power play goal.
Once the Leafs ditched Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson from their top unit this year, someone had to take over as the quarterback. In previous years, that was a job for the playmaking Mitch Marner, not the Rocket Richard winning Matthews.
While Simmons can be known to have outrageous takes, this is one where he's spot on. Coming into play against the Florida Panthers, Simmons added that Matthews was 144th in the league in power play goals. Of course that number will change, but it paints a picture of their current struggles, as well as giving them a painfully obvious solution moving forward. Put Matthews back on the right flank.
The Leafs are 2 for their last 20 on the man advantage before tonight, and outside of a 4-12 stretch in the middle of the season, they're 6 for 54. Something has to change and it starts with positioning Matthews to use his one-timer far more often.
The NHL's 22nd ranked penalty kill belongs to tonight's opponent, the Carolina Hurricanes, so it will be interesting to see if they how they come out of this one.
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