Auston Matthews “embarrassed” by the Leafs!

​Strong statement by the star player…

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HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Auston Matthews “embarrassed” by the Leafs!
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Toronto Maple Leafs players met with media on Wednesday after the team failed to reach the playoffs this season.

While most of them stated a case for patience over significant changes, star forward Auston Matthews was quite emotional when speaking about the Leafs’ recent path to the postseason, and how he is embarrassed by the club’s performance throughout the years. 

And he is right: the Maple Leafs ended up losing Game 5 to the Columbus Blue Jackets in their play-in series on Sunday, which meant they missed out on the playoffs. Toronto has not won a playoff series since 2004 and exited in the first round of postseason in each of the previous three years.

“A lot of it is mindset. We have to figure out playoffs, and how to get out of the first round. I think four years [of losing], obviously it’s pretty frustrating and a little bit embarrassing as well,” said Matthews. 


Damn right it is. 

However, Matthews focused on the future, such as did captain John Tavares, defensemen Jake Muzzin and Morgan Rielly. 

“This core believes we’re right there,” Matthews added.”We don’t really care what other people think, or how far away other people think we are… we’re going to power through this adversity and we’ll break through eventually.”

The Maple Leafs have just $4.59 million available in the projected cap space for next season with a total of 17 players under contract and we just know to expect changes. 

Blue liners Tyson Barrie and Cody Ceci along with forwards Kyle Clifford and Jason Spezza are slated for unrestricted free agency. The Leafs have no choice but to improve on the back end. 

Maybe then, Matthews won’t be as embarrassed next postseason. 


Source: TSN