After Connor McDavid could miss a game despite being close to 100 assists, Adam Proteau doesn’t think the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews needs load management when he’s near 70 goals.

Auston Matthews

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The balance between regular-season needs and the Stanley Cup playoffs is a delicate one indeed for any post-season squad, including the Toronto Maple Leafs. The NHL ideally wants its teams to put out their best lineups, and fans pay big money to watch the best players on the planet compete.

Although load management has become more of a factor for teams dealing with the relentless grind of the 82-game schedule, teams also want a good idea of who will be playing in the post-season, which means keeping players in the lineup.

That said, sometimes a team has no choice but to sit out a star player. The Edmonton Oilers have been without superstar center Connor McDavid in practice, with coach Kris Knoblauch saying McDavid’s day-to-day with an injury. McDavid currently sits at 99 assists on the year, so you’d have to think getting to the 100-assist level is a goal for him – at least, when he’s fully healthy.

In Toronto, Maple Leafs star center Auston Matthews is at a crucial point where he’s chasing the 70-goal plateau, but the team is choosing to rest some depth players and goaltender Ilya Samsonov on Tuesday.

In a perfect world, Matthews would probably take a rest for the final couple of games the Buds have left on their schedule. But the opportunity to score five more goals and reach 70 on the season is too tempting to keep Matthews from sitting out the end of Toronto’s schedule.

If you don’t think Matthews cares about hitting 70 goals, you haven’t been watching Leafs games of late. Matthews’ teammates have been constantly trying to set up Matthews to score – current linemate Max Domi has been feeding Matthews endlessly, even at Domi’s own expense. And Matthews has been firing shots at the opposition’s net from all parts of the offensive zone, hoping for a bit of puck luck to get him closer to 70 goals.

It’s not like he will be crestfallen if he doesn’t score 70 – he’s already got a career-best with 65 goals – but we have to think getting to the 70-goal plateau is important to him on some level.

It’s true you want your players at their peak, but that shouldn’t automatically mean taking key contributors out of the lineup in the hope they’ll have more energy in the first round. To be sure, if you want them to be confident, the best way to do that is to keep them on the ice right through the end of the year.

Appearing in back-to-back games on back-to-back nights the way Matthews will likely do on Tuesday against New Jersey is the Leafs telling him they want him hitting his stride at the perfect time of year. If that results in him hitting the 70-goal mark, that’s gravy.

There’s also the matter of earning home-ice advantage in the playoffs. The Leafs still have a decent shot at leapfrogging the Florida Panthers in their remaining five regular-season games, trailing them by just three points with a game in hand.

Not having Matthews on the ice would hurt their chances at home ice, so you can understand why Buds coach Sheldon Keefe wants Matthews out there for each and every game.

Now, if Matthews doesn’t score in the next few games and 70 goals look like a bridge too far for him, we can see a scenario in which Matthews does take one or two games off. But for the moment, he’s earned the opportunity to reach a level of scoring very few NHL stars ever do. He’s a true game-changer in many respects, but you can’t change games when you’re sitting in the press box. For that reason, Leafs fans should expect Matthews to remain a fixture for the games the Leafs have left in the regular season.

If he goes bonkers and hits the 70-goal mark in the next two or three games, Matthews probably will get some rest in Games 81 and 82. But until then, he’s going to be the key cog in Toronto’s competitive wheel, and he’s got the chance to elevate his game to rarely matched heights.

He deserves the chance to try for 70, and Leafs fans deserve the thrill of watching him try to get there.