Auston Matthews is on pace to become the greatest player in Toronto Maple Leafs history and he makes the spectacular seem routine. Matthews scored 69 goals during the 2023-24 campaign, the greatest total recorded since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96. He is rather nonplussed by individual accolades but Matthews started his Rocket Richard-winning campaign with a turbo boost, authoring hat tricks in consecutive games against the Montreal Canadiens and Minnesota Wild, respectively, to begin the year.
It almost didn’t occur due to a bookkeeping error — Matthews’ second goal was originally credited to John Tavares, as he tossed a speculative pass towards the front of the net, but it didn’t hit Tavares net-front, and the correction was made before No. 34 notched his second hat-trick in as many games.
AUSTON MATTHEWS 🎩🎩🎩
BACK-TO-BACK HAT-TRICKS! pic.twitter.com/QwsX3ePxyg
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) October 15, 2023
Covering the game for Yahoo Sports, the wave of euphoria emanating from the stands is hard to describe. Scotiabank Arena was rocking during the home opener when Matthews led the Maple Leafs past the Montreal Canadiens on opening night, punctuated by a Ryan Reaves-Arber Xhekaj tilt, but to do it again invited the rare possibility of a season without ceilings. Matthews pulled away from the competition in the Rocket Richard race and for a brief moment, it looked like anything was possible.
for the second consecutive game Auston Matthews has a hat trick this is unbelievable honestly.
— Arun Srinivasan (@Arunthings) October 15, 2023
“He’s going to do a lot of damage on a lot of records and a lot of Leafs records, goal-scoring achievements and what not,” Morgan Rielly said of Matthews’ record post-game. “That’s just another one on a long list that he has already achieved. He will continue to push and to grow.”
“I think just the work ethic has been there, both games,” Matthews said. “As a line, we’re just moving our feet, making sure we’re taking care of each other defensively, just trying to attack offensively. The puck’s been going in, it’s always fun and that’s been positive.”
Auston Matthews is the first Maple Leafs player with hat tricks in consecutive games since Wendel Clark during the 1993-94 season (Feb. 28, 1994, March 4, 1994)
— Arun Srinivasan (@Arunthings) October 15, 2023
If these quotes seem rote, it’s perhaps because Matthews feels like he can tear opponents apart on any given night and that individual accolades don’t matter in the absence of team success, but he brought an electricity to Scotiabank Arena partisans that are often caught staring at the game cynically, as opposed to living in the moment.
When you become the first player in 20 years to score consecutive hat-tricks for the NHL’s most visible franchise, it will attract league-wide attention. When you do it in consecutive games, the first two games of the season in front of an adoring, anxious, passionate home crowd, you can almost feel like a demigod. It was the coolest moment of the 2023-24 season, it’s one that stands out to me as a journalist who covers the team and it may be something that we’ll all have to revisit more formally now that Matthews is the captain and will only continue to make the impossible look routine.
