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.”
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings made another investment this week in a young standout, signing Moritz Seider to a seven-year contract worth nearly $60 million.
The Red Wings announced the move with the 23-year-old German defenseman on Thursday, three days after keeping 22-year-old forward Lucas Raymond with a $64.6 million, eight-year deal.
Detroit drafted Seider with the No. 6 pick overall eight years ago and he has proven to be a great pick. He has 134 career points, the most by a defenseman drafted in 2019.
He was the NHL’s only player to have at least 200 hits and block 200-plus shots last season, when he scored a career-high nine goals and had 42 points for the second straight year.
Seider won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie in 2022 after he had a career-high 50 points.
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman is banking on Seider, whose contract will count $8.55 million annually against the cap, and Raymond to turn a rebuilding team into a winner.
Detroit has failed to make the playoffs in eight straight seasons, the longest postseason drought in franchise history.
The Red Wings, who won four Stanley Cups from 1997 to 2008, have been reeling since their run of 25 straight postseasons ended in 2016.
Detroit was 41-32-9 last season and finished with a winning record for the first time since its last playoff appearance.
Yzerman re-signed Patrick Kane last summer and signed some free agents, including Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year contract worth $9.5 million after he helped the Florida Panthers hoist the Cup.
PENTICTON, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he’s been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season’s playoffs.
The 28-year-old all star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he’ll be able to return to playing.
He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.
Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver’s playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.
He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.
Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — No. 1 Texas will start Arch Manning at quarterback Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe while regular starter Quinn Ewers continues to recover from a strained muscle in his abdomen, coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday.
It will be the first career start for Manning, a second year freshman. He relieved Ewers in the second quarter last week against UTSA, and passed for four touchdowns and ran for another in a 56-7 Texas victory.
Manning is the son of Cooper Manning, the grandson of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning, and the nephew of Super Bowl-winning QBs Peyton and Eli Manning.
Ewers missed several games over the previous two seasons with shoulder and sternum injuries.
The Longhorns are No. 1 for the first time since 2008 and Saturday’s matchup with the Warhawks is Texas’ last game before the program starts its first SEC schedule against Mississippi State on Sept. 28.
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