Auston Matthews is now the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but with that title comes a lot of added responsibility.
While the impact that an NHL captain can have on their hockey team is somewhat debatable, being the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs is a unique honor — one that Matthews is not taking lightly, according to Leafs GM Brad Treliving, who spoke about the captaincy change on TSN 1050’s OverDrive one week ago.
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Fast forward to this week, in an interview on the NHL Network, former Maple Leaf Mike Johnson also had some interesting thoughts on how he thinks Matthews’ demeanor may change in the dressing room now that he’s captain.
“The one element that could change, maybe for the better if you can imagine that for Auston Matthews — I don’t know how much better Auston Matthews can get, maybe being better in the room — is that he is so respectful of older players, veterans, guys who’ve been there before… maybe he bit his tongue on occasion or was quieter on occasion, deferring to Tavares and his leadership,’ Johnson mentioned.
This could very well be true. Although Matthews was certainly part of that leadership group, having someone else who was older and more experienced was always something he could fall back on. He’s not the type of guy who will talk over his captain. Though he’s never shied away from difficult questions outside the room, Tavares was still the captain, so the brunt of responsibility fell on his shoulders.
“Now there will be no deferential treatment because he is the guy that is supposed to stand up and say whatever he feels should be said in that moment. That might be the only difference in the room” Johnson continued.
So perhaps Matthews will have a bigger voice in the room than before. He can no longer defer to another member of the leadership group out of respect or for other reasons. There is no need to bite his tongue any longer.
We’ve known for awhile that this is Matthews’ team. There is no better player on the Leafs and he should lean into that and be loud about it. We know what he can do on the ice. Now we’ll see how he takes the bull by the horns on the bench and in the locker room as well.
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