Austin Matthews is ready for the Maple Leafs after a three-game absence with an undeclared injury. Today we will discuss about Auston Matthews: 60 goals| 60| 60th goal
Auston Matthews: 60 goals| 60| 60th goal
Auston Taylor Matthews (born September 17, 1997) is an American professional ice hockey center and alternate captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). Born in San Ramon, California, Matthew and his family moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, when he was an infant. After playing baseball and hockey as a child, he developed a special interest in hockey after watching the local Arizona Coyotes play. A product of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program in the United States Hockey League (USHL), Matthews played for the ZSC Lions of the Swiss National League before being drafted into the NHL in 2016, winning the Swiss Cup title the same year. Matthews was widely considered the draft’s top prospect, and was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs first overall.
| Born | September 17, 1997 San Ramon, California, U.S. |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (191 cm) | ||
| Weight | 220 lb (100 kg; 15 st 10 lb) | ||
| Position | Center | ||
| Shoots | Left | ||
| NHL team Former teams |
Toronto Maple Leafs ZSC Lions |
||
| National team |  United States |
||
| NHL Draft | 1st overall, 2016 Toronto Maple Leafs |
||
| Playing career | 2015–present | ||
60 goals
He is in line to easily win the Rocket Richard Trophy, taking a five-goal lead in the final three days of the regular season. If he continues to be the NHL’s leading goal scorer, he will earn one honor after another in that category. Mathews is also the front runner in the race for the Hart Trophy, which is pretty tight and will be left to the discretion of the voters.
Regardless, we’re looking at the 24-year-old’s best singles regular season in Maple Leafs franchise history. He is on his way to becoming the greatest Leaf ever.
Who has scored 60 goals in an NHL season?
In recent seasons it is rare for players to score 60 goals, however, during the 70s, 80s and 90s, it was not all that uncommon.
While 21 different players are on the threshold, this has happened 40 times in NHL history. Players like Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux have several 60-goal seasons on their resume.
60
One of the biggest misconceptions about Matthews for those who don’t see him regularly may be that most of his goals look like his highlight reels—curl-and-drag wrists, those fluid power-play markers where He catches the puck and throws it over the net in one motion, game-breaking one-timer that ends scenes with authority. In truth, that’s only half the story.
The key that opened the 60-goal door for No. 34 this season was, of course, versatility. He scored a large number of goals that few others in the league could score, goals that depended on his all-world release, but he added a number of goals that relied on an entirely different aspect of his skill-set. Goals that relied on his positional awareness, on his ability to get lost in coverage, swimming in open pockets at just the right moment, or hanging back and taking part in a scramble to tuck into sleek rebounds.
That latter collection, the goals he scored around the netfront, accounted for almost half of Matthews’ 60-spot – shoveling into the garbage goals, using his hands to deceive the netminders into the tight, through the crease. From redirecting the hard work to twine. On the other hand, only six of his 60 came from one-timers, only three from those signature curl-and-drag risters, only two from catch-and-shoot height.
60th goal
But what really made the game special was Austin Matthews scoring 59 and 60 to set a new Toronto Maple Leafs record and become the first 60 goal scorer the NHL saw in a decade.
The win secured home ice in the first round of the NHL playoffs, though it still remains to be decided whether the Leafs face Tampa or Boston, both of which they won last night.
Boston could end up with enough points to face the Leafs if they win both their last games, and if Tampa fails to win both of their games in regulation.
If Tampa wins a single overtime point, they will win the right to play the Leafs, even though you have to figure out that both teams would prefer to play Carolina, as points aside in the standings, the Leafs are a much better team than the Hurricanes.
