ANNAPOLIS, MD. — The elephant in the room is not in the room at all.
He’s not even in town.
When the National Hockey League made the Toronto Maple Leafs the first and only Canadian team invited to participate in the U.S.-based Stadium Series of outdoor games last May, the hockey world was giddy off the Leafs and Capitals’ nail-biting first-round series that featured six overtime periods and a goal differential of one.
Auston Matthews, the American destined to resurrect Canada’s longest-suffering, most-watched hockey team, scored four goals in those six thrilling games.
Matthews was the teenaged Alex Ovechkin the Maple Leafs so desperately needed, and the most marketable, exciting U.S.-born athlete to pick up a stick since Patrick Kane — with none of the off-ice stories that, regardless of their veracity, can make marketing Kane as the face of the game uncomfortable at best.
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So, it feels like no coincidence that of the 10 Stadium Series games scheduled by the league, the only one of them to feature a franchise north of the border also features a great American hope as its best player. (Connor McDavid is pretty good at hockey and fun to watch, but he has yet to be invited to a skate in an outdoor game broadcast nationally in the U.S. Jack Eichel has.)
When NBC Sports unveiled its complete broadcast schedule for the 2017-18 season, the first two words on its own website’s story were “Auston” and “Matthews.”
That the reigning Calder champion is sidelined with a separated shoulder is more of a nuisance for NBC and the NHL’s promotion of Saturday’s event than it is for the Maple Leafs themselves, who have a plush 17-point cushion on a playoff berth and can afford to ensure their No. 1 centre is healthy before returning to action.
“Now, we’re not trying to say we don’t miss Auston. He’s an elite player and we’re a better team with him, without any question,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said.
“In saying that, when you put your sweater on at night, whoever is dressed, in my opinion, we have enough to win and we have to find a way to do it.”
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True. Toronto is a cool 7-4-2 when their leading goal-scorer doesn’t dress, and the Leafs aren’t starved for star power.
William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Frederik Andersen and Nazem Kadri can all spin highlights, but they aren’t Americans skating at a U.S. naval academy in special military-inspired uniforms.
They also didn’t face the media at training camp and talk about how their great-uncle served in the military and how it would be “like a dishonour to the men and women that fight for that flag, fight for the U.S.” to kneel during the “Star-Spangled Banner.”
When it comes to the NHL, NBC has logically focused on beefing up the importance of powerful and historic U.S. franchises and players. Big-market winners like Chicago, Boston and Pittsburgh.
Yet an American superstar like Matthews — to say nothing of Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau or Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler or Vancouver’s Brock Boeser — was scheduled to appear just thrice nationally in the U.S. this winter: Jan. 24 at Chicago (Kane vs. Matthews!); Saturday’s Stadium Series tilt (Ovie vs. Matthews!); and Monday at Buffalo (Eichel vs. Matthews!).
That first game in Chicago, Matthews underwhelmed. He was held pointless and registered just a single shot. He’ll miss both Saturday’s marquee match and Monday in Buffalo.
That means no casual American sports fan — i.e., the ones who don’t pay extra for an NHL package — will get to see Matthews score on live TV this season.
It’s sports. Injuries happen. Bad timing.
Matthews’ absence certainly won’t equate to a boring game. He’s just one skater, and American stars like T.J. Oshie and James van Riemsdyk could just as well steal the show the way Matthews did in the outdoor game he did play.
But for all the downplay of “another two points,” these prime-time spectacles are about selling the game and catching new eyes. And nothing sells Americans like a fresh-faced American who can wow with his creativity and whose future is blinding.
Don’t be surprised if Matthews and the Maple Leafs are granted more than three NBC games in 2018-19.
