Last night featured the NHL debut of heavily hyped Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Auston Matthews. It was a big moment for the franchise, which hasn’t had an elite-level prospect in at least a generation or two. The buildup to the game was very exciting. It was also all very confusing for Maple Leaf fans, who aren’t used to actually having something to feel optimistic about.
How do I know? Because I am a Leafs fan, and have been for over 30 years. So I get where Leafs Nation is coming from on this one. But don’t worry, I’m also an unbiased sportswriter, and you can trust me to handle this assignment objectively.
Anyway, Matthews finally made his long-awaited debut on Wednesday night. And in the very first game of the NHL regular-season schedule, on the road against a divisional rival in front of a national TV audience, Matthews went out and had what may well be the greatest debut game in the history of the NHL.
That sounds like hyperbole, but it’s really not. Let’s run through what we just witnessed, in handy Q&A format.
OK, so what just happened?
Matthews didn’t take long to get on the scoreboard, converting a slick setup in front to score his first career goal just eight minutes into the game. The goal came on his first career shot, matching the achievement of another first overall pick, Mario Lemieux. He was just getting started.
Eight minutes later, Matthews picked the pocket of two-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson to score his second goal of the period. He finished the hat trick early in the second by ripping a wrist shot from the face-off circle. That made him one of only five players in modern NHL history to record a hat trick in his first game.
At that point, sensing the need to build some suspense, Matthews went over 18 minutes before scoring again. His fourth of the night, on a nifty two-on-one feed from fellow rookie Willian Nylander, officially put him in uncharted territory as the first player since the advent of the forward pass to score four times in his first NHL game.
Needless to say, this was all very exciting for long-suffering Maple Leafs fans. But again, I’m an objective sportswriter, so I can handle it.
So who is Auston Matthews?
WHOEVER HE DAMN WELL WANTS TO BE! WHOOO! SUCK IT, 29 OTHER FAN BASES!
You OK, bud?
Sorry. Sorry, I can do this. Give me another try.
So who is Auston Matthews?
Matthews is a center from Arizona who cut his teeth with the US National Under-18 Team before heading to Switzerland last year to play his draft season against professionals. He’d been the consensus top prospect in the 2016 draft for at least two seasons, and after winning the draft lottery in April, the Maple Leafs surprised nobody by taking him with the first overall pick. After an impressive showing as part of Team North America at the World Cup in September, he joined the Leafs at training camp and earned a spot on the opening night roster. He’s big, plays a strong two-way game, has excellent vision and hockey sense, and a wrist shot that’s been compared to Joe Sakic’s.
Wait, did you just say Arizona? They make hockey players?
Not really, but here we are. Matthews actually has a hell of an origin story. He grew up playing baseball, but became a hockey fan after attending a Phoenix Coyotes game as a child. His parents had to struggle to support his development – just finding available ice time was a challenge in Arizona – but did what they could to support his dream. He eventually moved to Michigan to join the US national program, only to break his leg and miss three months. But by 2014, he was being described as a prodigy, and was well on his way to becoming the top prospect in hockey.
But it all started back with that Coyotes game. Canadian fans felt bad when the Winnipeg Jets moved to Arizona in 1996, but it turns out it was all totally worth it. Thanks Winnipeg! Sorry you came in second in the draft lottery.
And then last night, he scored four goals in his first two periods?
He did indeed. That put him on pace to score six in regulation, which would have tied the modern NHL record. But he wisely decided to shut it down and not score any more goals for the rest of the night, because it’s important to save something for game two.
Also, his record-setting debut made his mom cry, which was really sweet.
Just curious, but who ended up winning the game?
Literally nobody cares.
Do you have any ridiculous stats that don’t really fit anywhere else in the story but which you can use this Q&A format to wedge in anyway?
I sure do! Let’s try this one: Heading into last night, there had been 666 rookie seasons in the century-long history of the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise. In one game, Matthews passed 483 of those on the Leafs’ all-time full-season rookie goal-scoring leaderboard.
So Maple Leafs fans must be planning the parade today, right?
Oh lord no. This is all going to end terribly. Every Maple Leafs fan knows that. Well, maybe not all of us – there are probably some very small children who haven’t been at this very long and think things might actually end well and people might get to be happy. But the rest of us know that the hockey gods are setting us up for something terrible. Whether it’s a career-ending injury, an alien abduction, or a sudden change of heart that he’d really prefer baseball after all, this is all headed somewhere awful.
The hockey gods are just setting us up right now. It’s still the Maple Leafs. It all ends in tears.
Wow. You guys are depressing.
Yeah.
But for now …
We all plan to be completely insufferable!
Seriously, last night may have been the Maple Leafs’ highlight of the last dozen years. That sounds completely pathetic, but it’s probably true. The Leafs have only made the playoffs once since the 2004 lockout and that one ended, shall we say, sub-optimally. Other than that, it’s been the Mats Sundin 500th goal, that one win against the Habs, a few Brian Burke one-liners, and a whole lot of hard liquor. Let us have this.
And yes, it’s all downhill from here. Matthews will hit his first slump, the dumber fans among us will turn on him, somebody in the media will create some fake controversy to get attention, and everyone will start look back at this night and point and laugh at us for getting our hopes up.
But that’s in the future. For now, Maple Leafs fans are feeling … I don’t know, whatever that word is that means the opposite of sad. You’re going to want to avoid us for the next few days. If you’re at work today and you see a Maple Leaf fan walking or, let’s be honest, cart-wheeling down the hall towards you, pull the fire alarm and run.
We’ll understand. And we won’t care. We have Auston Matthews. We have the greatest rookie in NHL history, even if we know it won’t last. For at least a few days, we finally get to feel good about ourselves.
