The Leafs hope Auston Matthews gets the chance to celebrate a milestone moment at home on Wednesday night. The superstar centre is just one goal away from 50 as Toronto makes its only trip to the desert this season.
“It would be pretty cool to watch,” said linemate and fellow Arizona native Matthew Knies. “Everyone is excited to see that. It’s pretty cool that he could do it in his hometown as well. I’m super pumped for him. I’m going to try and feed him the puck as much as possible tonight.”
“No doubt we want to see it,” said captain John Tavares with a smile. “I’d say the odds are pretty good.”
Matthews has scored in 10 of his last 13 games with three hat tricks during this scintillating stretch. The 26-year-old, who grew up in Scottsdale, Ariz., expects around 20 friends and family members at the game.
“It’d be great,” said Matthews of the chance to hit an historic number at home. “It’d be cool so just going to continue to go out there and execute and play my game.”
This is the latest Matthews has visited home in a season. He also played here in February back in 2019 when he arrived with 27 goals in 43 games.
“My immediate family is always super excited,” said Matthews, who hosted a team-bonding event on Tuesday. “I’ve got some young cousins that are growing up and got into hockey the last couple years and they’re excited too. It’s cool to have them here and play in front of them.”
Matthews is averaging 0.92 goals per game this season and is on pace to score 74 goals. Teammates rave about his focus.
“His mindset is tremendous,” said Tavares. “He doesn’t get caught up in streaks or the numbers and all that. He’s just being determined to make an impact and finish his chances.”
Matthews enters the contest with seven goals in his last three games. He’s the first Leafs player with that many goals in a three-game span since Rick Vaive in 1986-87. He can join Vaive (three times) as the second player to record multiple 50-goal seasons with the Leafs. Matthews reached 60 goals a couple years back en route to winning the Hart Trophy.
“They have Auston Matthews on fire right now so we’ll need to be really aware of where he is on the ice and find him before they find him,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny told reporters. “It’s a challenge for everyone in the league, but it’s something we can do.”
Arizona can draw confidence from how they defended Connor McDavid on Monday during a loss to the Edmonton Oilers. McDavid picked up a power-play assist and a helper on an empty-net goal, but did not hit the scoresheet at even strength.
“We’ve played better defensively lately,” Tourigny stressed. “We just played [Nathan] MacKinnon [on Sunday] and McDavid and at 5-on-5 we did a really good job. We’re looking to keep improving on our tracking. We do a really good job in the neutral zone. We need to do a better job inside of our blue line.”
Matthews can become the first active player to reach the 50-goal mark in 55 games or fewer. McDavid did it in 61 games last season.
