​For the Leafs, a Saviour at Last?

Many hockey fans would agree with the choice of the new captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, while others would oppose the selection.  But either way, everyone in the hockey world will sit up and take notice that Auston Matthews is the new Leafs captain.

Afterall, Matthews’ stats in the NHL speak for themselves.  Since joining the league in 2016-17 he has scored 368 goals and has 281 assists. In the 2023-24 year he scored no less than 69 goals. The California-born player is only the second non-Canadian captain of the Leafs (after the Swede, Matt Sundin) in their history.

This writer of Against the Flow blog has been among the sceptics about Matthews.  Back in October of 2023, I reproached him for urging fans in a television ad to “Bet on Yourself”. The comment conjured up memories of Pete Rose, ‘Mister Hustle’ in baseball who has been rightly turned down several times for admission to the baseball Hall of Fame, due to his betting on baseball during his playing and managing career with the Cincinnati Reds.

Let’s be clear, no one is suggesting here that Matthews was betting on his hockey games. Rather, Against the Flow was arguing that the Leafs star was setting a poor example for young people who make up a high percentage of the audience for sports on television.

Since that time, close to a year ago, this writer has been warming to Aston Matthews.

A friend of mine, very knowledgeable about hockey, has pointed out that Matthews has grown into a strong back-checker. He is not only a fabulous goal scorer, but he is a player who puts his team’s performance over his personal success in the game. (For those who are not familiar with hockey, a strong back-checker turns toward his or her own net after a rush and skates hard to head off any advance by the opposing team. This is a sign of ‘good citizenship’ in the sport of hockey.)

Also, Matthews showed genuine pride and affection in appearing with outgoing captain John Tavares at the announcement of the new captaincy.

For its part, the Leafs organization showed a lot of class in managing the touchy reality that it was time for Tavares to relinquish the captain’s ‘C’. The Leafs’ General Manager, Brad Treliving talked the matter over with Travares, who later called Matthews to tell him he was handing over the captaincy.

Matthews commented: “It’s such a great honour to represent the Maple Leafs and put on that jersey every night, to be the captain is truly special. For him to call me and let me know that he wanted to pass on the captaincy to me, it was very emotional. It was a lot of things. It’s truly an honour.”

Bravo Auston, well said. This shows that humanity lives on in big bad pro hockey.

In 2009, Tavares was the Number One NHL draft pick by the New York Islanders.  He had a strong, if not overwhelming, nine-year career with the Islanders, and was the team captain there.  He reached the Maple Leafs through free agency and was named captain of his new team. Unfortunately, along the way Tavares suffered a severe injury and lost a stride in his skating.
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For his part, Matthews now has a great deal of weight on his shoulders to lead Toronto to the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1967. As of next spring, that will make it 58 years, a very long wait for one of the premier franchises in the sport.

​Nonetheless the loyalty and optimism of Leaf fans is boundless.  Despite being the butt of much kidding from non-believers, there is again optimism all over Leaf Nation with Matthews as Captain. Leaf fans will again be saying: “This will be the year of the Leafs.”