Toronto forward Auston Matthews is ready to break Alexander Ovechkin’s record

Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews has become, apparently, the most notable personal achievement in the current NHL regular season. The puck he scored against the Pittsburgh Penguins in his team’s 3-2 overtime win at home was Matthews’ 65th of the season. This is a repetition of the sniper record of the current century, Alexander Ovechkin, which has stood since 2009. The intrigue now is whether Auston Matthews will be the first player in more than three decades to reach the 70-goal mark in the championship.

In any case, this match would have been a notable event due to the situation with the race for the still vacant playoff spots from the Eastern Conference. Toronto has already booked theirs. But Pittsburgh turned out to be a participant in an amazing mess. He is fighting for the two unplayed slots with four competitors at once – the Detroit Red Wings, the New York Islanders, the Washington Capitals and the Philadelphia Flyers. And the indicators for everyone are approximately the same. Here, every point is a good catch, and two are worth their weight in gold.

Moreover, “Pittsburgh” just recently, a couple of weeks ago, looked hopelessly behind in this fierce battle, but turned everything around, winning four victories in a row. Toronto did not allow him to extend his streak. Defenseman Jake McCabe brought him the win in overtime. Although the point earned by Pittsburgh, whose famous Russian center forward Evgeni Malkin was completely fine in the spring, was enough to get into the play-off zone, even if he does not have any safety margin, like the rest of the ticket hunters.

And the match was given additional flair by what Toronto leader Auston Matthews did. It was he who gave the pass from which McCabe scored in extra time. But the focus of attention was not the decisive pass, but Matthews’ one-time shot in the power play, which he used to beat Pittsburgh goalkeeper Alex Nedeljkovic in the final period.

It was 65th goal American center forward in the regular season.

Alexander Ovechkin scored the same amount 15 years ago, who claims to soon, having surpassed Wayne Gretzky in the number of goals in the regular season, turn from the best hockey sniper of our time into the best hockey sniper in history without any reservations or clarifications. So, the value of his 2009 indicator was colossal.

The fact is that Ovechkin achieved it at a time when, by all accounts, scoring became much more difficult than, say, in the 1980s and 1990s, the Gretzky era – for example, due to the increased density of the game or because for invented complex defensive schemes. At the beginning of the century, not even every season reached the 50-goal mark. So Ovechkin’s performance seemed somehow cosmic.

He remained like this for a long time. Until the current decade, in fact, no one launched an attack on the record. Steven Stamkos from the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2012 was able to score six dozen goals in exactly this time. Attacks began, in fact, only recently due to the maturation of a new generation of outstanding forwards.

Auston Matthews, with his excellent throw from any position, with the ability to choose a position convenient for him, is its undisputed frontman.

But it was not he who came closest to Alexander Ovechkin’s achievement, but rather the passer, dispatcher Connor McDavid, who a year ago, having caught a tsunami of inspiration, stopped one step behind him with 64 goals. The top bar for Matthews was the same 60 goals as Stamkos the season before last.

In this, the 26-year-old striker in his prime, known for constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency, including the use of tricky technical devices in training, not only jumped over it, but jumped over it with a margin. In fact, there is no doubt that Auston Matthews will transform into the sole record holder within a matter of days. After the meeting with Pittsburgh, Toronto had five more games on the regular season calendar, including the next two against the New Jersey Devils, who had lost hope for the playoffs.

The real intrigue was whether Matthews would be able to reach the absolutely mind-blowing mark of 70 goals by today’s standards. Its previous successful assault took place more than three decades ago. In 1993, the title of best sniper of the regular season with 76 goals was shared by two outstanding forwards – Finn Teemu Selanne and Russian Alexander Mogilny.

Alexey Dospehov