TORONTO – You can count Auston Matthews among the Toronto Maple Leafs who are enjoying making Mike Modano’s predictions look bad.
The 19-year-old centre saw Modano’s infamous tweet – “Enjoy these two home games cause this is over in 5 for @Capitals” – shortly after Toronto took a 2-1 series lead over Washington with a 4-3 overtime victory on Monday night.
So what did Matthews do? He liked it.
“I thought it was pretty funny,” Matthews said Wednesday before Game 4. “I know some guys got a pretty good laugh out of it.”
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The Hockey Hall of Famer is certainly having fun with his prognostications.
After Matthews scored Toronto’s first goal in Game 3, Modano sent another tweet that has since been deleted: “Figures it takes an American to get the @MapleLeafs back in it.”
He also jokingly blamed spell check for not having his original say “@MapleLeafs in 5.”
Modano’s Twitter account is getting a fair amount of attention in the Leafs dressing room, and radio play-by-play man Joe Bowen even addressed it in his call of Tyler Bozak’s overtime winner.
“Hey, Mike Modano! There’s going to be at least six games!” Bowen said.
Matthews grew up with a Modano poster on his wall and has since met the top-scoring American in NHL history through his trainer, Don Jupp.
“I liked him a lot,” said Matthews. “Obviously, him being American everything. I was mostly kind of focused on the Coyotes when I was that young, but growing up I think you definitely learn to appreciate just how good he was.”
Modano retired to Arizona and occasionally crosses paths with the Scottsdale-raised Matthews. They haven’t spent time on the ice together, though.
“He doesn’t really skate too much any more,” said Matthews. “He’s usually golfing. I see him around every once and awhile in the summer.”
Next time they’ll have something else to laugh about.
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