After winning a gold medal at the Olympics for Team USA, it's not too surprising that returning to the last-place Toronto Maple Leafs hasn't exactly been thrilling for Auston Matthews. But these last three games? not even that much He could imagine it.
After their third consecutive disappointing effort coming out of the break, a 5–2 loss to the Ottawa Senators, captain Matthews criticized his teammates, calling his team "embarrassing".
"There's actually been a loss of communication in all three zones. Too bad. It's a shame, to be honest," Matthews said. “No matter where we are, no matter what the situation, we need to take more pride in our game…
"Everyone just has to look in the mirror and be better."
But Matthews wasn't the only one disappointed with the team's effort. Jake McCabe also did not back down.
"I thought, the first five minutes were good... after that we'll get out of bed."
The Leafs' playoff hopes are now little to none, and they will be sellers
After this three-game losing streak, and eight losses in 11 games, the Leafs now only have a 1.2% chance of making the playoffs. And that, frankly, seems a bit much. It seems that, by all accounts, they will open the door to a fire sale of sorts as we approach Friday's trade deadline.
No, Matthews won't be going anywhere, but at this point we wonder if he won't. Could this be a conversation this summer, depending on how much disruption it takes?
The Arizona-born center still has two years left on his four-year, $53 million contract ($13.25 million AAV). In his first year without Mitch Marner, he is having a poor season, scoring 26 goals and 51 points in 54 games. With 778 points in 683 career games, Matthews was averaging 1.14 points per game over his first nine seasons. It has dropped to 0.94 in this losing Leafs season.
The shine of the gold medal wore off quickly for Matthews, who faced some ridiculous media and fan backlash after defeating Canada at the Olympics.
Toronto, welcome back to Austin.
