{"id":557237,"date":"2026-04-21T12:22:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557237\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T12:22:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:22:03","slug":"jack-armstrong-using-auston-matthews-as-a-punchline-entirely-confirms-a-soft-toronto-locker-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557237\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Armstrong using Auston Matthews as a punchline entirely confirms a soft Toronto locker room"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t \"Toronto <\/p>\n

Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images (left); John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images (right)<\/p>\n

During Game Two of the Cavs\/Raptors playoff series, Toronto commentator Jack Armstrong used the Maple Leafs as the butt of a joke that actually shows a deeper issue.<\/p>\n

They don’t often get as much attention or credit as their contemporaries but right now they are the closest team to a championship; at least this year and that means they can get away with a little bit more.<\/p>\n

Jack Armstrong takes a shot at the Maple Leafs toughness after Raptors protect their star player<\/p>\n

What that means is that they can poke fun at the Maple Leafs and no one is going to really bat an eye.<\/p>\n

After Scottie Barnes was shoved to the ground, RJ Barrett immediately rushed over and got in between Barnes and Cavaliers forward Jaylon Tyson.<\/p>\n

But it was what Raptors broadcaster Jack Armstrong said that is going to irk many Maple Leafs fans though he’s right to considering that at least Barnes had some people come to his defence \u2014 and it wasn’t even a direct knee on knee hit:<\/p>\n

Good job by RJ Barrett. Auston Matthews wishes he had him as a teammate. That’s how you stand up for your guys. That’s right, get outta here man.<\/p>\n

Gotta love Armstrong’s passion and honesty, and hearing him call out the Maple Leafs through his signature raspy and excited tone \u2014 it just caps things off beautifully.<\/p>\n

Armstrong’s comments point to a deeper issue in a fractured system<\/p>\n

Let’s try and compare the two and see why Armstrong even said anything:<\/p>\n

Toronto Maple Leafs – Lose your captain to a torn MCL after an intentional knee; do absolutely nothing in the moment and only show fire after being chastised.<\/p>\n

Toronto Raptors – Star player gets shoved down; no injury, no punches, no malicious intent to take Barnes out \u2014 immediate response.<\/p>\n

It’s pretty plain to see why Armstrong would make a joke but it’s the fact that he has the credence to anyways shows that there are some serious issues afoot.<\/p>\n

Matthews should never have been left hung out to dry in the first place, and the non-response from his teammates show that either they were too scared to get punched, too unaware about what’s going on, or simply don’t care enough to give their captain a hand.<\/p>\n

That’s someone who spent the entire decade with Matthews and was his longest-serving teammate and longest serving Maple Leaf. It’s genuinely absurd to see that he stood by and did nothing \u2014 and frankly inexcusable.<\/p>\n

So while the Raptors are fighting for their playoff lives right now, the Maple Leafs are on the golf course, or Cancun, or wherever they decided to go and good ol’ Jack Armstrong found a way to throw one last shot even with the season long over.<\/p>\n

Previously on Hockey Patrol<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

53 MINUTES AGO|36 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Jack Armstrong using Auston Matthews as a punchline entirely confirms a soft Toronto locker room<\/p>\n

Do you think the Maple Leafs are the laughingstock of the NHL?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images (left); John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images (right) During Game Two of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[532,5,62883,20,5172,2088,4,62884,66,31,17109,5171],"class_list":{"0":"post-557237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-auston-matthews","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-jack-armstrong","11":"tag-maple-leafs","12":"tag-mapleleafs","13":"tag-nba-playoffs","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-raptors-cavs-score","16":"tag-toronto","17":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","18":"tag-toronto-raptors","19":"tag-torontomapleleafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116442676935820589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}