“She’s 82 long,” says Mike Babcock.
No, the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs is not ordering a suit for Zdeno Chara. He’s providing a punchy bite of perspective for anyone concerned that his team’s shiny, first-overall draft pick has not scored a goal in 10 games and counting.
It’s analytics for dummies, like me. All it means is that slumps and streaks happen. It’s simply sport’s nature. A 19-year-old phenom can score four goals one night and endure three weeks where it feels like he’s launching magnetized rubber at red iron.
These ups and downs get magnified when you work in the centre of the hockey galaxy and when the kid drafted after you, Patrik Laine, has potted eight goals since your last one.
“I’m used to scoring,” Auston Matthews says. “That’s what I want to do. When those chances aren’t going in and you’re hitting posts, you get frustrated.”
Matthews’ slump will end any minute now. And depending on how your brain works, feel free to credit desire, coaching, raw talent, or math when it does. But family will have a hand in this, too.
The 19-year-old rookie lived with his mom, Ema, last winter as a pro in Switzerland. This season in Toronto it’s been his father, Brian.
“He’s just being my dad. He’s been there for me my whole life so it’s nice to have someone you trust, someone who’s been through it all with you there in times like this, when things aren’t going your way and you’re getting frustrated. It’s nice to have someone to talk to,” Matthews says.
“When I want to talk about hockey, he’ll talk about hockey. And when I don’t, he won’t say anything about hockey. He does a good job of that.”
Ema was here for her son’s indelible debut and flew back into town this week (a good-luck charm perhaps?), and there was one spell when Brian had to head back to Arizona, too.
“I actually hung in there pretty well. I was doing my own laundry, cooking every once in a while,” Matthews boasts. “I can cook a steak. Pasta. I can’t really do anything else. I’m more of a grill guy. Microwave guy.”
Matthews scored 24 goals in 36 games against men last year. He’s unsure if his production has ever gone this dry.
Funny thing is, he feels and looks fantastic out there. He leads all Leafs by a healthy margin in shots with 63. Corsica Hockey has him tops in 5-on-5 individual scoring chances. The freshman centre’s face-off work is improving sharply, to the point he’s won most of his draws throughout the drought. In Tuesday’s win over Nashville, the Marner-Bozak-van Riemsdyk line owned the glory, but Matthews had more shot attempts (nine) than any of them.
“He’s got all the talent in the world,” says fellow centre Nazem Kadri, who helps nightly by drawing the toughest defensive assignment. “He’s going to score, and when he does, it’s gonna come in bunches.”
Kadri’s promise is backed up by the fact Matthews already has three multi-point NHL games and there’s only three per cent chance he’s available in your fantasy league. By converting just 9.5 per cent of his shots on net, he ranks 10th on the team, behind the likes of Ben Smith. That’ll change.
“I’m playing better defensively, I feel like my positioning without the puck has been a huge difference from games 1 to 5 to now. I just continue to progress over the course of these games,” Matthews says.
Ditching the start-him-on-the-wing strategy so common in developing stud pivots (see: Seguin, Tyler), Babcock instead expects Matthews to be a dominant NHL centre by Christmastime.
As pressure-packed as that statement is, Matthews appreciates how Babcock’s staff has kept things light during this cold spell. Instead of video showing where he should shoot on certain goalies, Matthews is shown clips of Sidney Crosby and Henrik Zetterberg’s positioning without the puck.
Focus on defence, improve in the face-off dot, stay the course and the goals will follow. She’s 82 long.
“I’m fairly superstitious,” Matthews says. “That stuff can mess with you. I don’t change stuff up too much ’cause it gets in your head.”
He’s had the same game-day routine since midget or bantam. Ask for details of that routine, and he’d rather keep that to himself. (Minor routine disruption Thursday: Matthews missed morning skate but will play versus Florida.)
“I’ve done a lot of media training. You know what to say and what not to say, I guess,” Matthews says. “Outside the rink, I’m a pretty relaxed guy. I’m different.”
The kid tries to avoid thinking hockey when he leaves the rink. He plays Xbox, shops, goes out to dinner with some of the Maple Leafs’ other young talent. He ditches his business-minded approach and jokes around. Laughs more.
Like the time a Toronto fan approached him and Morgan Rielly and asked if he was Matthews or Mitch Marner.
“Auston Matthews,” he told the pedestrian.
“Oh, nice,” came the reply. Then silence.
“It was pretty awkward,” Matthews smiles.
Wait until more of those shots squeak in. They’ll all recognize him soon enough.