Auston Matthews under fire at the worst time in series vs. Florida!

Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews certainly isn’t a leader on the scoreboard in the postseason. The star forward has only found the back of the net twice in 10 games even though head coach Craig Berube has revealed how he’s been doing his best to try and motivate his captain, certain his big goal, the one to get the monkey off his back is coming.

However, media members have been going hard on Matthews, especially since the stats from the start of his career in Toronto speak for themselves. Regular season goals? 401. Playoff goals? 25.

Ahead of Game 5, Matthews has been called out by not only fans, but pundits and reporters as well.

Scott Stinson of the Score wrote on Tuesday about Matthews’ underperformance, urging the Leafs’ forward to “start putting the puck in the net.”

He wrote: “But even Matthews’ most ardent defenders must admit that three goals in his last 20 playoff games are just not enough - not for a guy with his scoring bona fides. Not for a player who received the captaincy as a show of management’s faith in him. Not for someone with the highest salary in the NHL.

“If the Maple Leafs are going to win two of three from the Panthers, they need Matthews to take them there.”

Sportsnet’s Justin Bourne also chimed in, writing about Matthews’ slump and lack of efforts:

“In sum, the Leafs’ huge centre just refuses to assert himself right now. He’s not skating, he’s standing, he’s almost lurking and waiting for others to go do it like he sees himself as Teemu Selanne rather than Eric Lindros. Matthews has never been lightning quick, but he usually gets up to top speed fairly regularly. He hasn’t been doing that.”

Bourne also added: “But this is the theme of Matthews’ game right now for me. I’m not sold that he’s “hurt” (it doesn’t show up anywhere else). To me he just looks stuck in mud, fading away from the dangerous areas, while on the road against a team like Florida, he needs to know: the only way out is through.”

When asked about his struggles in the postseason after Game 4 in which the Florida Panthers tied the series at 2, Matthews broke the silence on his scoring slump, speaking on how he feels about the ongoing rut.

“The chances have been there. I think I just gotta do a better job at bearing down on some of them. For the most part throughout the four games we’ve been winning shifts, generating chances against tough matchups.

“Obviously, you wanna score. I wanna score. But we’ll continue to get those opportunities and capitalize and go from there.”

The series is now 2-2, and the Maple Leafs got home ice for what’s now a best of three.

However Matthews will need to bring his best and quiet the chatter if the Leafs want to (finally) move on to the Eastern conference final.