Auston Matthews Can Make History Against The Blackhawks Tonight
AP
The Maple Leafs Star Center broke the 300 career goal milestone on Wednesday’s opening night game against the Canadiens, but he also has recorded a hat trick in the first two games of the season and is looking to continue the streak. Matthews became the 5th player in NHL history to open the season with back-to-back 3-goal performances. The last of which came from Alex Ovechkin. Prior to that, there were 3 different players that opened the year with consecutive hat tricks scored in the 1917-18 season.
In the history of the NHL, there have only been 3 instances where players have scored 3 goals in 3 consecutive games. Joe Malone, Cy Denney, and Reg Noble all did it in the 1917-18 season and were also the 3 players that I mentioned above. Some websites say that Mike Bossy had 3 consecutive hat tricks in the 1980-81 season, but I couldn’t find the proof of that in his game logs, so I am sticking with the 3 that achieved it in 1917.
The 2-time Maurice Richard Trophy Winner had the 2nd highest odds to be a 3-time winner at the end of the season, but is currently the odds-on favorite to be the top goal scorer. In my 5 Predictions for the upcoming season article, I said that Connor McDavid was going to score 70 goals this season, but it is hard to argue that Matthews won’t be in consideration for that. Like McDavid, Matthews is entering the prime of his career and both are only 26 years old. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit to see a goal-scoring rivalry between the two this season.
Obviously a hat trick average per game isn’t sustainable for Auston Matthews, but it appears that he will be in prime position to stay towards the top of the goal scoring leaderboards throughout the upcoming season. The Leafs will be a facing the Blackhawks tonight in what should be a great game. The Blackhawks aren’t quite at the level of the Leafs, but they’re really fun to watch with Connor Bedard in the mix. The Leafs are favored in this contest and Matthews can become the first player in 106 years to have 3-straight hat tricks in front of his home crowd in Toronto. It should be a fun game to watch.
Yacs