Matthews ends the drought for Maple Leafs in game 5 of the eastern 2nd round

Toronto – The numbers show that Auston Matthews is due.

The captain of Toronto Maple Leafs did not score a goal in nine Stanley Cup Playoff games against the Florida Panthers. In fact, he has a total of three goals in his last 18 after season games.

Nevertheless, the Maple Leafs are 2-2 in the second round of the best-of-7-leaders Conference with the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, who entered a crucial game 5 in Scotiag Arena on Wednesday (7:00 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, TVAS, TVAS, ESPN).

“Everyone wants to produce, score goals, and they didn't let it down at all,” said Linemate Mitch Marner after training on Tuesday about Matthews. “His mood, his behavior in the changing room was incredible.

“Stay patient. This is a hard team against which you can score a goal. You did it all year round.”

The Panthers took the seventh goals against this season and allowed an average of 2.72 per game. On Tuesday they were third in the playoffs with 2.78 per game.

And Matthews is not alone to have problems against Florida. In the first round, the Tampa Bay Lightning striker Nikita Kucherov, who listed the NHL in the regular season with 121 points (37 goals, 84 templates), was recorded in the five-game series. In the Stanley Cup final last season, the striker of Edmonton Oilers Superstar, Leon Draisaitl, scored no goal in seven games.

Apart from William Nylander, who has three goals against the Panthers, nobody achieved more than two on the Maple Leafs in this series.

But it was particularly difficult for Matthews, who recorded two assists in five games when Toronto played Florida in the second round in 2023. In this series he has three templates through four games, who scored at least 40 goals in six of his nine NHL season, including a career high last season.

In the long history of the Maple Leafs, he is second with 401 goals of the regular season (19 behind Mats Sundin) and in the late season with 25.

But he only has two in these playoffs, each against the Ottawa senators in a first round with six games. In the regular season, he achieved an NHL career goal with 33 goals and missed 15 games. The first nine were an injury to the upper body in November and six more after they graved the injury on December 20.

During this first absence, he flew to a clinic in Germany to with Dr. To accompany Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, who has treated San Francisco 49ers in recent years, which Christian McCaffery left behind because of his then alach flows.

But the coach of Toronto, Craig Berube, instead of doing Matthews' lack of evaluation, repeatedly pointed out that the striker was effective in areas of the game that affect no goals.

“Here, too, I am not just about taking the goal, it's about the 200-foot game that all the little things do that have to be done,” he said on Tuesday, 24 hours after he had praised Matthews for his defensive game and success in the face-off district (he won 10 out of 16 in game 4; 62.5 percent).

To Berube's Point: Matthews won 57.4 percent of his allusion in this post. He was second on the Maple Leafs in Plus-3, two behind defender Chris Tannev. He is connected to Marner with 13 due to blocked shots under Toronto Forwards. He leads the team with 35 goal shots.

Unfortunately for the Maple Leafs, only two went into it, although he broke out with eight templates and 10 points.

Yes, he was forced to play two finalists for the Panthers' Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart, two finalists for Selke Trophy as a top defensive in the league. But every top player sees the leading opponents of the game in the playoffs.

Through four games in this series, three were decided by one goal, the other by two. The difference between victory and defeat often results with a back of the hand.

Matthews had several of these options in overtime against Canada, while in February he acted as captain of the United States in the title game of the 4 nations. On every opportunity he was stopped by goalkeeper Jordan Binnington and set the stage for Connor McDavid's subsequent tournament winner in the dramatic 3-2 victory of Canada.

Now he has another chance.

“The chances were there,” he said. “I think I have to do a better job that stores you on her.”