Nik the Trik said:
disco said:
It seems pretty straight-forward Matthews would have more assists if his left-winger could finish. "Hasn't played all that well", "slumping". Give it a rest. A center has defensive responsibilities, face-offs... it's not all goals and assists. Auston doesn't need to "step it up". He's nineteen years old and just got drafted 8 months ago. Matthews is fine.
It really doesn't matter how you want to look at it, that Matthews doesn't have a point in 7 games is noteworthy and does represent a scoring slump.
And it's not as if it's entirely just a points thing. His shots and shot attempts per game rate have dropped off pretty dramatically too during this slump (all numbers 5-on-5):
| GP | iCF | iSF | iCF/60 | iSF/60 |
Oct. to Feb. | 62 | 287 | 179 | 19.64 | 12.25 |
February | 14 | 71 | 43 | 21.34 | 12.92 |
March | 7 | 18 | 11 | 10.51 | 6.43 |
For some perspective, Matthews led
all players in shots on goal (aka iSF) at even-strength this season prior to March. He was first among forwards in shot attempts (aka iCF) too* In March he's tied for 169th in shots on goal.
So it's not as if he's playing the exact same game he was prior to this slump and the puck just isn't going in for him, like say Kadri during that stretch last season. There has been a noticeable drop in his play. It's not a reason to panic about his future or anything, but ignoring it doesn't really do anyone any good either.
* - I just wanted to point out how much of a freak Brent Burns has been this season. From October to March Burns was 2nd to Matthews in shots on goal, with 173 to Matthews' 179. But in shot attempts I mentioned that Matthews was only 1st among forwards. That's because Burns had ONE-HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN more shot attempts than Matthews did. 113 is the difference between 1st and 2nd in that stat. That's the same gap as between 2nd place and 119th.