Auston Matthews needed 60 shots to score his sixth goal last season. This time, it only took 11 as Matthews recorded consecutive season-opening hat tricks — the fifth player in NHL history to do so.
Matthews has scored on 37.5 per cent of his shot attempts (6-for-16), 12 of which have come from the slot (75 per cent). That percentage of slot shots is a sharp uptick from the 61.5 per cent average he had over his first seven seasons. He has also been deadly accurate from that area of the ice, hitting the net on 10 of his 12 attempts (83.3 per cent) — up from his average of 58.6 per cent prior to this season.
Of course, no one expects Matthews to maintain this mind-boggling pace, but he is getting to the right spots. So far this season, 75 per cent of the goals scored around the league have come from the slot (162 of 216).
Hampered by a hand injury last season, Matthews has quickly regained his MVP form. The 2021-22 Hart Trophy winner is a load all over the ice, but especially around the net, where he needs only a sliver of space to make something happen.
“He’s just so in control of his game and the game in general,” Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares told reporters. “It’s not just the goal-scoring. You see the takeaways, how he wins battles, his puck protection, his ability to maneuver his body and control the puck is really, really elite. … It’s something that’s really hard to do, and he makes it look really easy. All those things are really in sync, and he’s obviously off to a tremendous start.”
On Monday against rookie phenom Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks, Matthews will try to become the first player in league history to register three consecutive hat tricks at any point of a season. (There have been 77 previous instances of back-to-back hat tricks, according to Hockey Reference.)
All eyes will be on Toronto as Matthews attempts the seemingly impossible.
All stats via Sportlogiq
