Auston Matthews sends a message to his teammates after the loss in Dallas

Photo credit: Toronto Maple Leafs – X

Auston Matthews was surprisingly positive after Toronto’s 5-1 loss to the Dallas Stars and had a message for his teammates to not give up hope just yet.

Coming into Sunday, the Maple Leafs needed to have a strong performance against the Dallas Stars as they were coming off a rough stretch of games where they were outscored 9-3 including a 4-0 shutout loss to the Washington Capitals.

Auston Matthews was ineffective yet again, and with a lot of pressure on not only him but the rest of the entire organization; everyone has to start pulling their weight.

Auston Matthews’ comments show he’s not giving up hope just yet

But he was shockingly positive even after another loss and made sure to give his team their flowers, even if it’s only a couple of them.

Matthews admitted that if the team keeps up grinding then things will eventually have to go their way, and if they can get through this together; there might be light at the end of the tunnel:

We gotta pick each other up and grind through this. We’re going to start to get those breaks.

But it’s a little disheartening to hear that Matthews is hoping for some luck because while you do need some help for certain bounces etc.; you’ve gotta prove you’re good enough to get those breaks and Toronto just hasn’t.

Can the team grind through this rough patch or is Matthews blowing smoke?

It’s at least a better effort on Toronto’s end to have you know…your captain represents your team after every game win or loss. That’s his job. The media pressure in Toronto is certainly valid, but the less answers given — the more they’re going to press.

But perhaps there really is a silver lining in all this. Toronto genuinely played a good game and not only out-hit Dallas, but they also outshot them; a rarity for the Leafs.

If they can take what they applied against Pittsburgh (a team they have done very well against) the combined confidence in both themselves and knowing they have an opponent they enjoy playing against; it could just lead to a victory.

It’s the bottom-six picking things up now, and the stars are invisible. It’s something we aren’t used to seeing from Toronto, and while we were told things would look different, we didn’t think they’d look this bad.

But if those bottom-six players can keep the team’s foundation steady then it might buy the stars enough time to reset and pick things up again.

This year was built upon teamwork, passion, and a cohesive ‘all-for-one’ attitude.

Although we’ve scarcely seen all three working in tandem, for the Maple Leafs there is still hope according to their captain.

Now he just has to go out there and put his words into action, or they’ll just end up much like this season has: all hype and no results.

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Auston Matthews sends a message to his teammates after the loss in Dallas

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