The Toronto Maple Leafs had a dreadful 50 minutes Tuesday night, trailing the Chicago Blackhawks 2-0. The boos came raining down at Scotiabank Arena. Although the team didn’t respond to head coach Craig Berube calling them out leading up to the game, they certainly did respond to the fans’ vocal displeasure to finish the game.

A wild 10-minute third period rally brought the Leafs back from what was one of their worst performances of the season, to a 3-2 victory.

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In particular, captain Auston Matthews finally showed a flash of life, snapping home the tying goal. But it was his animated reaction, cupping his hand to his ear and gesturing to the crowd to get louder, that caught a lot of people’s attention.

So what was that all about, anyway? On TSN’s That’s Hockey, Overdrive host Bryan Hayes thinks he knows.

I don’t think for a second what he was saying was, ‘Please keep cheering’. What he was saying was, ‘I hear the boos. We hear the boos’. And I do believe he was being genuine after the game (when he said) that they were deserved.

“The boo birds were coming down, rightfully so,” said Matthews about his celly reaction. “I think after that first goal, the crowd really got into it, which is great, and then after the second one, the place was rocking,” the captain said. “I was just all in the moment.”

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Was Matthews’ ‘I hear you’ gesture to fans positive or negative?

Former NHLer Martin Biron, however, told the TSN crew that he feels Matthews’ hand-to-ear gesture was a “negative” response.

“It was almost his way to say, ‘I don’t hear you booing anymore!’ I want him to get a positive response, not a negative response to the fans. He (only) had one shot on goal in the game! Are you telling me he couldn’t have gotten four or five really good shots in the first 40 minutes?” asked Biron, rhetorically.

“How about you get back to the bench and tell your boys, your teammates, ‘Let’s go! I’m ready to go! You get out on the ice and score again.’ I didn’t see that to the bench, I saw that to the fans.”

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Whatever Matthews meant by it, he did give the fans a reason to cheer, and more importantly, he showed emotion. That’s something that many observers around the team simply haven’t seen from him this season. Matthews has 23 points in 27 games, which is a 69-point pace. That would be his lowest point-per-game total since his rookie season. This, from the guy who led the NHL with an explosive 69 goals just two years ago.

If the Maple Leafs are to have any chance of making a playoff push and going on a run, they’ll need that emotional Matthews back on a regular basis. And if that happens, he’ll really hear it from the fans. In a “positive” way.

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