Will Auston Matthews Ever Fight Back?

I’m not a Leafs fan so what Matthews does for Toronto does not matter to me, not for one bit. However, I am American and the display that Matthews put on the other night did not have me feeling all that great. Unless you’re living under a rock, the Olympics are this year and the red, white and blue might be sporting a more talented team than they ever had before. Talent’s a weird thing though, right?

Who else remembers the David Backes USA Patriot tour in which he fought Toews, Perry and Nash leading up to the Olympic games? This was a surly American forward who let the world know that he would do whatever he could to help bring home a medal for the States. I don’t think that we could expect Matthews to do the same, right? They’re not at all the same player. Backes was meat and potatoes while Matthews is a super skilled, 200 foot center – However, this ain’t it brother.

We talked about it on this weeks podcast and in my opinion is my only complaint in Matthews game- where is the fuck you? Where is the, I’m going to fuck you up? I didn’t know if I was being crazy but even Brownie agreed.

“As good of an offensive player that Auston Matthews is, he’s shown a lack of grit to his game. Much like Ovechkin had to change his game in order to get the Caps a Cup, that same burden now rests on Matthews. With him as the face of the franchise it’s no wonder the Leafs can’t get out of the 1st round. Give me Matthew Tkachuk all day over this guy.”

This might be an old man yelling at a cloud moment for me, but how much cooler would it be if the most talented American hockey player going right now had just a little bit of snarl to his game? Do you not think that would effect the Leafs play? I’m not saying Matthews needs to go out and beat the shit out of people, I’m just saying maybe don’t let yourself get humped up and down by Dubois for 30 seconds and then stand up with your palms in the air and your mouth flapping in the breeze?

This is probably going to come off as a hardo blog – a you don’t like the game now blog and that’s not true. I love the game, I love the talent, I love the shit Trevor Zegras has been going this year in the show— I just want the future / current face of USA hockey to have a little less earring and a lot more jam.