Yesterday there was a strong reaction to Frank Seravalli and Jason Gregor’s take on Auston Matthews goal output for 2022-23 and how they found the lack of concern from Leafs fans a little strange.

I dunno b’ys, probably because he’s still on pace for 95 points and is the best two-way center in hockey pic.twitter.com/InU6ocbwS0
— Ryan (@ryanfancey) January 5, 2023

Ryan did a solid breakdown of why Leafs fans shouldn’t be bothered by that here, and the argument boils down to a few facts, the first and most obvious one being that the Leafs are winning games at a solid clip without requiring Matthews to score at a historic rate. There is also the fact that Matthews is still on pace for a 95-point season, he has been playing a more physical/playoff-style game to add to his ever-improving defensive game, and the Leafs are making up the difference on the strength of William Nylander on track for a career year. So yeah, the Leafs shouldn’t be too concerned and I don’t think individual stats have ever been a driving concern in Toronto like they’ve been in other markets like say Edmonton. We are living that “just win a round” life. It becomes a concern if production completely dries up, which hasn’t happened with Auston. So no worries.
That being said, the topic has been raised so let’s look at Auston’s production.

Matthews is definitely down from the rate that only three players in the past 22 years have hit, and that’s the 60-goal mark. You can blame a slow start with the first ten games not being overly electric for Auston, but he has certainly picked …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation