After the Maple Leafs stumbled to a fourth consecutive loss this week, Sheldon Keefe said he didn’t know who on the team could be trusted to come through in key moments.
“We are 42 games into the season and I still have a lot of questions about who is going to get the job done for us,” the Toronto coach lamented.
At this point it should not come as a surprise, but Auston Matthews is one answer.
On Thursday night the star centre scored three times and assisted on the other in a much-needed 4-3 victory in Calgary over the Flames. It was his fourth hat trick of the season and came in a game in which the visitors fell into an early 2-0 hole.
“If you give Matthews a pinky, he’ll take the whole hand,” Calgary defenceman Rasmus Andersson said. “He’s a hell of a player and he showed that today.”
Matthews scored once near the end of the first period and twice in the second and the latter turned out to be the winner. He has 37 goals in 42 games and is on a pace to score 72 in the regular season.
Alexander Mogilny and Teemu Selanne were the last to break the NHL’s 70-goal barrier. Each had 76 in 1992-93, Mogilny for the Buffalo Sabres and Selanne in his rookie year with Winnipeg.
“I am sort of getting used to it,” Leafs defenceman T.J. Brodie said after watching Matthews take over. “The way he can score is just incredible.”
His heroics had Toronto fans at the Scotiabank Saddledome chanting “MVP” over and over again. There are many fine candidates but Matthews has to be near the top of the list.
Toronto appeared to be on the way to a fifth successive defeat until he came to the rescue. It also helped that Calgary had what would have been the tying goal reversed in the third period.
“Guys didn’t panic,” Keefe said. “They were loose. A night like tonight is supposed to be hard. You have to fight your way through it. We needed this one here. I am really proud of the guys.”
It remains to be seen if this was a one-off or perhaps a turnaround during what has been a difficult stretch. The Maple Leafs have won only six of their past 15 and face a tough opponent in the Canucks in Vancouver on Saturday before meeting the Kraken in Seattle on Sunday.
They return home from the four-game western swing on Wednesday when the high-flying Jets come to town. In each of the four recent losses, Toronto held the lead in the third period but caved down the stretch.
“It gives us confidence to have a lead and hang onto it,” Matthews said. “We did a lot of really good things in the third period. We did not sit back too much.”
Matthews entered Friday with a four-goal lead over Sam Reinhart of Florida in the race for the Maurice (Rocket) Richard Trophy. The Panthers were to play at home against the Minnesota Wild.
Matthews, 26, has already captured the trophy twice and if he does it again he will only become the second player to do it three times since the award’s inception in 1998-99. Alex Ovechkin has won it on nine occasions.
“When he is scoring the team can relax,” Keefe said. “It helps everybody.”
Matthews registered hat tricks in back-to-back games to start the season and had another in December. He has 11 over his eight-year career.
“It is fun to watch,” Toronto goalie Martin Jones said. He had 23 saves on Thursday to improve his record to 9-2 with a .920 save percentage. “It’s pretty impressive.”
Marty Klinkenberg