Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews warming up before a game

Toronto Maple Leafs forwards Auston Matthews and William Nylander were critical of their performance on Tuesday night in an ugly, 6-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils. The Toronto Maple Leafs squared off against the Devils in what was a lopsided event on behalf of the Devils lineup that came to play.

 

In an interview with The Hockey News’ David Alter, Matthews had this to say about their performance:

“I think just a little bit of an immature game from us tonight at times. And I just have to have that killer instinct a little bit more, especially when you have a good first period like that. I wanna come out and stay on the hunt there, and then the second, I thought we kind of took a step back instead of a step forward.”

The matchup between the two clubs was a fair game in the first period, with the Maple Leafs coming out strong with a goal from Tyler Bertuzzi a minute and four seconds into the opening frame.

But, the Devils regrouped and scored two straight goals afterward and took the lead by one, going into the second period. It was during the second period that William Nylander and Auston Matthews scored two straight of the Maple Leaf’s own to take a lead.

However, with the New Jersey Devils, the team scored another two goals straight which took a commanding lead and resulted in a win for the Devils club. During the same interview with Alter, William Nylander had this to say about the result:

“Sloppiness in the team’s game tonight. It is rattling, we’re capable of a lot better.”

Auston Matthews’ projected amount of goals scored this season revealed

At the beginning of the 2023/24 regular season, Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews scored two back-to-back hat tricks in the first two games to start the year.

To date, Auston Matthews has 58 goals this season, with 11 games remaining this year. When calculating the game’s remaining percentage and the estimate of the number of goals he is scoring at the current pace, it comes out to 67 goals scored by the end of the year. An effort, unlikely.

In an interview with CBC’s Stephen Whyno, Matthews said:

“I’m just going to continue to push and try to elevate my game towards the stretch and do what I can to help the team win.”