He’s in process of reinventing himself. Probably tough to realize you can’t do what you used to be able to do before.
It would be cool to see Nylander’s speed progression overlayed onto this chart because he’s a similar age.
The thing that’s interesting is he’s slower than last year and has significantly less speed bursts than when he was supposedly injured. He’s clearly still injured. Chronically.
it’s pretty clear just from watching his burst is gone. Thank you for the good times in the regular season, Auston
Guys, you don’t get bursts playing our system.
Damn this is depressing. Ive noticed it in games but it somehow hits harder seeing the data to back it up.
Absolutely devastating that he injured his back in the final game chasing 70 2 years ago
From top 5 player to a shell of himself…. Back injuries are the real killer in sports. Sports medicine is so advanced that the ACL and Achilles tears aren’t the same career enders . But back injuries? Still have no real treatments for some stuff.
It was obvious with the back check in OT
Papi changed into grand papi so quickly
A lot of speculation he’s been diminshed due to injury, and I agree that is very likely.
But perhaps another explanation could be Berubes system that has him buried in defensive zone draws and the overall amount of time spent in the the D zone.
He has a heavy workload, probably the heaviest of any 1C in the league, and he has started PKing in recent years as well.
Perhaps the energy/frequency of speed bursts is diminished because of his workload, and also the move away from Keefe possession hockey, speed through the neutral zone into a system that relies more on dumping and grinding.
He’s 29 and has basically had a chronic injury issue it’s not unexpected that he drop off physically to some extent.
I wish our coach would acknowledge this and stop burying him defensively when he doesn’t have the legs or the line mates to carry the puck from the D zone to the Ozone and regularly have dominant shifts there like he did in most of his prime.
He’s a goal scorer, put him in a position to do so.
Would be interesting to see compared to other aging curves . most 23 year olds skate better than themselves at 28
I’m not worried about him “yet”. Why? Because he’s still productive. If he becomes a shell of his former self and doesn’t score etc. then I’ll be worried. It’s clear he has an injury which we all think is his back. Maybe sciatica? Or something else.
Glad this came up. You guys saw how slow every member of our Leafs team is during OT except Willy, right? Second time in a row where had possession for 3+ minutes and can’t seem to get a **single shot through on 3-on-3**. Like Matthews looked brutal having to attempt to carry the puck in the zone multiple times, then immediately being forced to leave because he can’t get through a player in the opponents D-zone.
He looked like Brian Boyle in OT
You’d think Matthews was the same age as JT sometimes
Who’s the Leaf in the top right of the graph? Maybe Bobby McMann?
13 million well spent on a slow 2 way 2nd line centre.
I would take these stats with a grain of salt – you are comparing full season stats to 30 game stats. If he has a 22.5 mph speed burst within the next 50 games he’ll back into his normal range.
I think yesterday he looked much better. Obviously the past two seasons everyone talks about his shot and speed being down. The other big thing I’ve noticed is his lack of stick lifts.
Would be interesting to compare this to average stats from the team. Keefe hockey was a lot more dump-and-chase, which would explain some of the falloff
This graph seems like bull shit to me. Speed is definitely a skill but it doesn’t directly correlate to production. I’ve never looked at Matthews as a player who uses speed as a tool. It’s his brain and shot.
This happens. Some centers transition to wingers, others learn to adapt. Some people argue that physical peak for players is closer to 23/24.
One thing is that Matthews has never been the fastest in terms of acceleration. With Babcock, Hyman played first forward back. Nylander would transition and Matthews would support; the duo generated a lot of 2-on-1s.
With Keefe, speed didn’t really matter. The Leafs cycled a lot more. Matthews could move through the zone and take time setting up, because the game plan was to control, cycle, and break defenses rather than generate rushes. This changed towards the end of Keefe’s tenure, when they added more North-South game to the system in his last year.
With Berube, Matthews is first forward back. His wingers are the ones on the rush, with Matthews back on support. The team is choosing to prioritize Matthews’ defensive impact over offense. It’s why Knies is always the one on the rush, and why 2-on-1s or 2-on-0s usually feature Domi (recently). Obviously, in game there’s a lot of variety, but the system wants Matthews to be the defensive forward and that means accepting a lesser offensive output.
John Tavares is literally faster than him this year in every metric on EDGE stats. More bursts etc.
Matthews is close to bottom 50 percentile
So whenever everyone brings up Tavares being old and slow (Johnson did last night during OT funny enough) just remember, Matthews is noticeably a worse skater than JOHN TAVARES now – the guy whose entire career downside since being drafted was his skating.
Back issues are not a joke, We probably have seen the best of Matthews and he will likely end up altering his game (which he has). Back injuries are gonna affect a lot more than just skating for him. As it stands now, even if hes an effective 2-way player, hes going to be too slow to defend anyone noteworhy. Celebrini looked like a Cheetah in comparison dashing around
25 comments
Probably his back then. That would hurt both.
He’s in process of reinventing himself. Probably tough to realize you can’t do what you used to be able to do before.
It would be cool to see Nylander’s speed progression overlayed onto this chart because he’s a similar age.
The thing that’s interesting is he’s slower than last year and has significantly less speed bursts than when he was supposedly injured. He’s clearly still injured. Chronically.
it’s pretty clear just from watching his burst is gone. Thank you for the good times in the regular season, Auston
Guys, you don’t get bursts playing our system.
Damn this is depressing. Ive noticed it in games but it somehow hits harder seeing the data to back it up.
Absolutely devastating that he injured his back in the final game chasing 70 2 years ago
From top 5 player to a shell of himself…. Back injuries are the real killer in sports. Sports medicine is so advanced that the ACL and Achilles tears aren’t the same career enders . But back injuries? Still have no real treatments for some stuff.
It was obvious with the back check in OT
Papi changed into grand papi so quickly
A lot of speculation he’s been diminshed due to injury, and I agree that is very likely.
But perhaps another explanation could be Berubes system that has him buried in defensive zone draws and the overall amount of time spent in the the D zone.
He has a heavy workload, probably the heaviest of any 1C in the league, and he has started PKing in recent years as well.
Perhaps the energy/frequency of speed bursts is diminished because of his workload, and also the move away from Keefe possession hockey, speed through the neutral zone into a system that relies more on dumping and grinding.
He’s 29 and has basically had a chronic injury issue it’s not unexpected that he drop off physically to some extent.
I wish our coach would acknowledge this and stop burying him defensively when he doesn’t have the legs or the line mates to carry the puck from the D zone to the Ozone and regularly have dominant shifts there like he did in most of his prime.
He’s a goal scorer, put him in a position to do so.
Would be interesting to see compared to other aging curves . most 23 year olds skate better than themselves at 28
I’m not worried about him “yet”. Why? Because he’s still productive. If he becomes a shell of his former self and doesn’t score etc. then I’ll be worried. It’s clear he has an injury which we all think is his back. Maybe sciatica? Or something else.
Glad this came up. You guys saw how slow every member of our Leafs team is during OT except Willy, right? Second time in a row where had possession for 3+ minutes and can’t seem to get a **single shot through on 3-on-3**. Like Matthews looked brutal having to attempt to carry the puck in the zone multiple times, then immediately being forced to leave because he can’t get through a player in the opponents D-zone.
He looked like Brian Boyle in OT
You’d think Matthews was the same age as JT sometimes
Who’s the Leaf in the top right of the graph? Maybe Bobby McMann?
13 million well spent on a slow 2 way 2nd line centre.
I would take these stats with a grain of salt – you are comparing full season stats to 30 game stats. If he has a 22.5 mph speed burst within the next 50 games he’ll back into his normal range.
I think yesterday he looked much better. Obviously the past two seasons everyone talks about his shot and speed being down. The other big thing I’ve noticed is his lack of stick lifts.
Would be interesting to compare this to average stats from the team. Keefe hockey was a lot more dump-and-chase, which would explain some of the falloff
This graph seems like bull shit to me. Speed is definitely a skill but it doesn’t directly correlate to production. I’ve never looked at Matthews as a player who uses speed as a tool. It’s his brain and shot.
This happens. Some centers transition to wingers, others learn to adapt. Some people argue that physical peak for players is closer to 23/24.
One thing is that Matthews has never been the fastest in terms of acceleration. With Babcock, Hyman played first forward back. Nylander would transition and Matthews would support; the duo generated a lot of 2-on-1s.
With Keefe, speed didn’t really matter. The Leafs cycled a lot more. Matthews could move through the zone and take time setting up, because the game plan was to control, cycle, and break defenses rather than generate rushes. This changed towards the end of Keefe’s tenure, when they added more North-South game to the system in his last year.
With Berube, Matthews is first forward back. His wingers are the ones on the rush, with Matthews back on support. The team is choosing to prioritize Matthews’ defensive impact over offense. It’s why Knies is always the one on the rush, and why 2-on-1s or 2-on-0s usually feature Domi (recently). Obviously, in game there’s a lot of variety, but the system wants Matthews to be the defensive forward and that means accepting a lesser offensive output.
John Tavares is literally faster than him this year in every metric on EDGE stats. More bursts etc.
Matthews is close to bottom 50 percentile
So whenever everyone brings up Tavares being old and slow (Johnson did last night during OT funny enough) just remember, Matthews is noticeably a worse skater than JOHN TAVARES now – the guy whose entire career downside since being drafted was his skating.
Back issues are not a joke, We probably have seen the best of Matthews and he will likely end up altering his game (which he has). Back injuries are gonna affect a lot more than just skating for him. As it stands now, even if hes an effective 2-way player, hes going to be too slow to defend anyone noteworhy. Celebrini looked like a Cheetah in comparison dashing around