Auston Matthews is softer than charmin...what a joke

[matter2003]

Matthews scores a goal, takes a hit after and then goes back at the dude and gives him a crosscheck...then they start slashing and yapping and Matthews let's his teammate fight his fight for him and everyone else gets involved as he stands there and laughs...what a disgrace.

This is what you call a punk move.  It's like the one guy everyone knows growing up that they won't hang out with anymore because you go out with him and a few other guys to a bar and he starts crap all night with someone and gets your group into a fight and then just stands there watching it happen or runs away. Matthews is a soft little punk and the dude who jumped in there should be doing the same thing to him in the locker room for it.

 

 

Edited November 4, 2022 by matter2003

[Buffalonill]

Meh  I would sign that man to a massive contract and not even give  To craps if he did that in Buffalo

[matter2003]

12 minutes ago, Buffalonill said:

Meh  I would sign that man to a massive contract and not even give  To craps if he did that in Buffalo

It's an example of why Toronto goes out in the first round of the playoffs every year.  This stuff matters when push comes to shove and when the chips are down.  That is the kind of stuff that causes locker room issues. We just got rid of those with Eichel, Reinhart and Risto...don't need to be adding any of them back again.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

He is a terrible team guy.  All he cares about is himself.  He will not finish his currrent contract in The Great Satan and I feel badly for the sucker GM that trades for him.  If KA even thinks about trading for this snot nosed loser he should be fired immediately if not sooner.

[Curt]

I actually second the meh.  Matthews is a star offensive player.  The tougher guys on his team should stand up for him.  He should be able to cross check or slash a guy without having to then fight.

In this particular case, I don’t think it was even necessary for the other TOR players to charge in to fight the guy like that.  If they hadn’t, I don’t think it would have devolved into the situation it became.  With that being said, I think Matthews certainly looked completely disinterested in having any part of that situation.  He should have grabbed ahold of PHI #54 and just stood there with him.  It was a bad look, but not egregious.

Now, if Matthews is doing this every week, I could see it wearing a bit thin with his teammates.

[Porous Five Hole]

The game has changed. I do not want my 11M, 60 goal guy doing anything but skate away. He got a cross check and a slash in.  Plenty of pluggers who can jump in on his behalf from there.  

[Zamboni]

Honestly looks like something that Skinner would also do. Not the greatest look overall.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Zamboni

[mjd1001]

First, I have seen a few Toronto games and he is engaging a lot less than in the past. Not sure if it is his own decision, or he was asked/told to stay away. But in the past 2 years, he got hit, he woudn't drop the gloves but would yap back or slash back, do a little shoving.  This year there have been numerous times where his teammates came to his defense and he skated away. not even staying behind a referee and yelling back but literally moving 10+ feet away from ANYONE on the ice in some occasions. At the very least that is not a good look.

Of course you don't want him hurt and you want him to not be involved in any of this. But if he always skates away and his teamates/linemates get in shoving matches to defend him, I don't see anything changing.  If he decided to give some major/big time slashes back on more than on occasion, and after he did that for him to engage a little more...then maybe, just MAYBE the abuse he takes during the game would go down a little bit.

In an ideal world for the Leafs and Matthews, he would take some of that abuse, not just skate away but yell back at the other team something like "thanks for the Power Play, now I'm going to go out and score" and then do so. But even to do that, he can't skate 20 feet away from everyone and just ignore the scrum.

Honestly, in this clip he did engage a bit, but I have seen other games this year where he did just skate away.

 

Maybe the way you look at this is how it impacts his teammates.  Is he the star? Sure. But former playes will say that Chemistry is a thing, and we have an example here in Buffalo that it may be better for the team if you don't have cliques in the locker room and for the most part people get along.  Beleive that matters or not, in Toronto you really do seem to have a 'big 4' that everything revolves around, and just about everyone else is almost an afterthought. I'm in Niagara County so I listen to 590 out of Toronto a lot, and a few times over the past year or two it is brought up as a possibility that the locker room up there isn't exactly 'all inclusive'.  It was brought up the other day something like "the only time the superstars on this team put in 100% effort is when it comes to negotiating and maximizing their contracts'.  If chemisty does matter, i'm not sure how it feels for the 12-15 players on the 'bottom' of the roster to have to feel like they are only there to defend/make room for Austin and Mitch.

Edited November 4, 2022 by mjd1001

[inkman]

Sabres fans don’t have any cache when it comes to critiquing any player on any team for any amount of toughness.  We iced the softest team in the league for 15 years.  If fans of other teams frequented this forum, the OP would get laughed off the internet.  

[mjd1001]

34 minutes ago, inkman said:

Sabres fans don’t have any cache when it comes to critiquing any player on any team for any amount of toughness.  We iced the softest team in the league for 15 years.  If fans of other teams frequented this forum, the OP would get laughed off the internet.  

Does that make our opiinion invalid? Because it is being discussed here on this board does it mean it isn't happening? The answer to both is no.  The fact it is being discussed by sabres fans has zero impact on whether it may or may not be an issue for him and the Leafs.

[Weave]

I don’t know what to make of that clip, other than AM has a very punchable face.

I do know that it only took once for a guy I stood up for to walk away before I decided I was never going to intervene on his behalf again.  AM may have no choice soon but to answer for his antics.

[matter2003]

49 minutes ago, inkman said:

Sabres fans don’t have any cache when it comes to critiquing any player on any team for any amount of toughness.  We iced the softest team in the league for 15 years.  If fans of other teams frequented this forum, the OP would get laughed off the internet.  

And look where it got us...nowhere...the same way the Leafs get bounced from the first round no matter how good they are.

Edited November 4, 2022 by matter2003

[inkman]

15 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Does that make our opiinion invalid? Because it is being discussed here on this board does it mean it isn't happening? The answer to both is no.  The fact it is being discussed by sabres fans has zero impact on whether it may or may not be an issue for him and the Leafs.

 

1 minute ago, matter2003 said:

And look where it got us...nowhere...the same way the Leafs get bounced from the first round no matter how good they are.

I just wouldn’t bring it up as some internet tough guy.  

[matter2003]

7 minutes ago, inkman said:

 

I just wouldn’t bring it up as some internet tough guy.  

No idea what you are talking about. Weird take.

[Cozenscousin]

Seems like I remember him cross checking Dahlin and Cozens returned the favor with a nice check that sent him flying.

[Sabel79]

20 minutes ago, Cozenscousin said:

Seems like I remember him cross checking Dahlin and Cozens returned the favor with a nice check that sent him flying.

I have that game saved and still watch it every so often when I need a pick-me-up.  So good....

[JustOneParade]

As a fan, if a Sabres player wearing a letter acted like that I'd be disgusted. Not sure how teammates would feel about it.

[matter2003]

4 minutes ago, JustOneParade said:

As a fan, if a Sabres player wearing a letter acted like that I'd be disgusted. Not sure how teammates would feel about it.

Probably worse.

[inkman]

1 hour ago, matter2003 said:

No idea what you are talking about. Weird take.

Drugs are a hell of a thing 

[Malazan]

3 hours ago, inkman said:

Sabres fans don’t have any cache when it comes to critiquing any player on any team for any amount of toughness.  We iced the softest team in the league for 15 years.  If fans of other teams frequented this forum, the OP would get laughed off the internet.  

While I'm on the side of I think it's much ado about nothing.. there is an extremely popular hockey forum with fans from every team and even non-NHL teams and there's as many people who think it's a culture problem as there are people who think it's nothing so I don't think anyone is getting laughed off the internet for the discussion. 

[matter2003]

1 hour ago, inkman said:

Drugs are a hell of a thing 

I wouldn't know...maybe you should take a break or go get some help? 😉

Edited November 4, 2022 by matter2003

[French Collection]

Agree that AM is softer than charmin.

I don’t think he needs to drop the gloves but skating away is pretty wimpy. He is 6’3 210 for Pete’s sake, a little bit of face washing would prevent some of the abuse and he would get more respect.

Like @Weavesaid, he has a very punchable face.

I can’t wait until he bails on the Leafs so I don’t have to see him all over the news here.

[PerreaultForever]

He is most definitely soft, and there's no way they win the cup this year without a LOT of help from the refs (and more) BUT at least a few of the Leafs stepped in when their "star" got involved in something. That is better (for the team) than when Eichel got roughed up and nobody on the Sabres did anything. 

Fortunately, the current group of Sabres seems different. 

[PerreaultForever]

4 hours ago, Porous Five Hole said:

The game has changed. I do not want my 11M, 60 goal guy doing anything but skate away. He got a cross check and a slash in.  Plenty of pluggers who can jump in on his behalf from there.  

Or you could have a star player who takes care of himself and earns respect for that. Just saying.

 

[Flashsabre]

Matthews Give a Sh@t metre runs at about negative 5. The Leafs will never win with him. His body language and interviews here in Toronto have been horrible this year. He will get his regular season points but when push comes to shove he is always in the losing end.