Maple Leafs loss shouldn’t concern fans after Auston Matthews debut

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Ottawa Senators on opening night, but thanks to Auston Matthews, that wasn’t the main story.

The Ottawa Senators beat Auston Matthews — not the Maple Leafs — and it took overtime for them to do so. Matthews’ debut was a historic one for many reasons. He was the first player to score four goals in their first NHL game, and the first No. 1 overall pick to record a debut hattrick.

And yet, for just the fourth time since 1987-88, a team lost despite one of their players scoring four goals. For those who like to troll the Maple Leafs, you must admit you were amazed by the Auston Matthews show. As for Leafs fans interpreting the loss as a metaphor for Matthews’ career, it gets better from here. The Leafs might have lost, but they have a bonafide star on their roster, and a talent who can help return Mike Babcock’s team to the playoffs.

As astonishing as his debut was, it wasn’t flawless. Matthews was supposed to cover Kyle Turris in overtime, who eventually scored the game-winner. Despite a four-goal performance, that was the first thing Matthews pointed out after the game. It was an excellent display of maturity on his part since he knew it had to be addressed.

While everyone thought Matthews would be good, nobody thought that he would do that in his first game — not even his parents. Mike Babcock had a great line after the game, saying it was his best night as the Leafs’ coach. And he’s right; last season Toronto failed to crack 70 points and finished last in the league. The story for the Leafs last season was what they did off the ice. Now they can talk about something they did on the ice.

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Auston Matthews isn’t going to score four goals every game, and he’s not going to face Craig Anderson every night. But while we want to fixate on the future, let’s not forget the present. For a team that’s full of rookies, Matthew is already emerging as a leader. Everyone knew he was going to make an immediate impact with the Leafs, and once he enters his prime, he’s going to get a lot better, especially under the guidance of Mike Babcock.

And despite what the scoreboard suggested, there was more to the Leafs’ offense than Auston Matthews. This game is probably his last one as a third-line center, even though he led all Leafs’ forwards in ice-time. But there’s no reason to break him up with William Nylander and Zach Hyman. They’re already proving to have great chemistry, especially Nylander who had a two-assist night.

Had Matthews not scored four goals, we’d probably all be talking about Mitch Marner. Toronto’s lottery pick from last year had a spectacular NHL debut, as he was already doing stuff like this on his first shift:

He was stopped on a breakaway later in the first, but given all the chances he was creating, he could’ve had a hattrick himself.

It’s easy to blame the Leafs’ loss on Frederik Andersen, considering a lot of Ottawa’s goals came on stoppable pucks. While getting rid of Jonathan Bernier was the right move, Andersen is hardly an upgrade over him:

Following his debut, he could be following the path of other California goalies that Toronto has acquired in J.S. Giguere, Bernier, and Vesa Toskala. But remember that he’s only a month removed from a head injury, which resulted in a shortened training camp. For that reason alone, it would be worth going to Jhonas Enroth next game, but he should be given the benefit of the doubt.

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Finally, as a way to prove the Leafs weren’t a one-man show, their possession numbers were very encouraging:

Even though Matthews won’t score four goals every night, it’s clear that he’s got great hockey sense. Even though the Leafs have abandoned Randy Carlyle’s method of hockey, seeing them lose in spite of outshooting their opponent and having great possession numbers could mean that they’re going back to the Ron Wilson era.