To the relief of Toronto Maple Leafs fans, superstar center Auston Matthews is back in the lineup and scoring after missing nine games with an upper-body injury.
Matthews scored in his second game back from injury on Monday in the Maple Leafs’ 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.
Toronto’s captain entered this season as the favorite to win the NHL’s goal-scoring race and the Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard Trophy for the second straight year. That said, his injury-related absence and his relatively meager six goals in 15 games means winning the Rocket Richard is probably a bridge too far.
But not to worry, Maple Leafs fans. As Matthews settles in, his ongoing work on his two-way game – a point of pride for the 27-year-old – could lead to winning a different award this season: the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward.
Certainly, Matthews’ defensive game has drastically improved from his rookie campaign in 2016-17. He’s become a legitimate 200-foot threat.
Leafs coach Craig Berube has recognized Matthews’ defensive game by giving him 2:01 in shorthanded minutes per game this season. By contrast, Matthews didn’t play much at all on the penalty kill until last season, when he averaged 43 seconds of PK time.
Don’t get it twisted – the Maple Leafs want Matthews to return to where he was as a lethal goal-scorer. Anyone betting against Matthews doing so is foolish.
Given a little bit of time and maybe puck luck, Matthews will go on a big-time scoring streak sooner or later.
But Matthews cares first and foremost about winning games, so if he’s part of a vastly improved Toronto defense and stays healthy, that will mean more to him than another Rocket Richard Trophy.
Hockey observers had already acknowledged Matthews’ improved defensive game by making him a finalist for the Selke last season when he finished third in Selke voting. He may still wind up finishing behind last season’s Selke winner, Panthers star Aleksander Barkov, once again this season. But so long as the Leafs win more games than Florida does – especially come playoff time – Matthews will be satisfied with his efforts.
Would it be great to see Matthews flirt with a 70-goal season again? Of course, it would. And in future years, if he does stay healthy, that’s a legitimate goal for Matthews. But this season, there are now too many obstacles in his way to be a legitimate Rocket Richard front-runner.
There are 119 players with more goals than Matthews, and he’s 12 tallies back of the leader, Florida Panthers right winger Sam Reinhart. That’s just far too many competitors for even a Herculean offensive player like Matthews to vault over to get back into the periphery of the Rocket Richard race, let alone to actually win the goal-scoring award once again.
That said, this doesn’t mean this season is lost for Matthews. If the Leafs can continue playing as well as they did in Matthews’ absence, and if Toronto can win a few rounds in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Leafs fans, players and management won’t care one iota that Matthews didn’t win the Rocket Richard.
It’s cliche, but it’s cliche because it’s true – the team results are far and away more important than any individual honors, and even if Matthews wins this year’s Selke, it won’t mean a thing if Toronto doesn’t do well in the post-season.