Is Auston Matthews back? What’s going on with Morgan Rielly? Monday Morning Leafs Report

Auston Matthews scored again over the weekend, his first NHL career short-handed goal in a comeback win over Montreal .

Matthews is scoring all the time again these days.

Hes picked up at least a goal in six of the eight games hes played since returning from injury earlier this month.

He has seven goals total in that stretch and 18 now (in 32 games) on the season.

Advertisement For contexts sake: Matthews scored only 11 times in the first 24 games of the season, when he was clearly labouring physically.

So ...

is he back? Back to peak Matthews, that is? Back to the version that stomped all over the NHL last season with the first 69-goal season in almost 30 years? This recent stretch of scoring (0.88 goals per game), small sample size notwithstanding, is basically in line with the ridiculous pace he was scoring at last year (0.85).

These are also just the kind of goals Matthews scored with regularity a season ago, with basically unparalleled precision shooting the puck: That just aint fair, Auston! Aint fair pic.twitter.com/E8uuIjRNai Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) January 17, 2025 Yet its still hard to argue that hes all the way back.

For one thing, Matthews still isnt ripping it as much as he once did.

His total shots in these last eight games: 5, 3, 1, 2, 2, 2, 5, 2.

Less than three shots per game.

Matthews averaged almost 4.6 shots a game last season.

He attempted almost 700.

Whats been more glaring is that the ice isnt tilting in the Leafs favour when hes out there.

On Saturday, the Leafs won 8.9 percent of the expected goals (you read that right) when Matthews was out alongside his linemates, Matthew Knies and Mitch Marner .

The line mostly struggled to generate quality looks while giving up those kinds of looks at the other end: High-danger shot attempts were 5-0 for Montreal.

The Leafs have spent a lot of time defending, dont force turnovers like they once did and have ended up one-and-done a lot offensively.

Typically, the Leafs own that realm when Matthews is out there.

Last year, they were plus-97 in high-danger shot attempts at five-on-five in Matthews minutes while winning almost 57 percent of the expected goals (aka the shot quality battle).

During this mini post-injury stretch, the Leafs are minus-6 (18-24) in the high-danger attempt department with Matthews on the ice.

Theyve won just 41 percent of the expected goals in those minutes completely un-Matthews-like, in other words.

Weirdly, this all feels kind of encouraging for the Leafs.

Matthews is scoring regularly again, which is obviously positive, and he still has another level, or three, to climb on the overall dominance scale.

Advertisement Points 1.

Matthews is about to make more history.

Four more goals and hell pass Darryl Sittler for second in the Leafs all-time ranks.

Barring some kind of goal-per-game run down the stretch, which cant be totally ruled out given the player in question, Matthews should end up claiming the all-time crown from Sundin early next season.

2.

The Leafs are definitely working to keep Matthews minutes in check.

Hes averaging 19 per game since he returned in early January, down from 20.5 before that.

An attempt to shave some responsibility off his plate, by holding him off the penalty kill, was scuttled when that unit struggled.

Matthews has returned to first-unit duty with Marner.

3.

Marner is on pace now for 87 assists, which would be a career best (by a lot) and the second-most ever by a Leaf.

Doug Gilmour, Marners idol, holds the record with 95 (1992-93).

Marner topped out at 69, fourth-most in franchise history, two seasons ago.

4.

Joseph Woll gave up three goals to the Canadiens on Saturday, but still put together arguably one of his best games all season.

It was only because of his play, shutting some Grade-A opportunities amid some leaky defensive hockey, that the Leafs had the space to come back and score seven unanswered.

Wolls next start will be his 24th of the year, marking his new single-season NHL career high.

His numbers this year are almost identical to last year: 5.

Almost no one in the NHL is burying chances around the net right now quite like William Nylander .

Nylander, a breakaway master, is shooting almost 30 percent from high-danger zones, with 13 goals on 44 shots.

(League average is 20.2 percent.) Nylanders goal chart this season highlights that damage: (Chart courtesy NHL Edge) Those 13 high-danger goals rank in the NHLs 97th percentile.

Nylander had 12 all of last season, shooting only 16.7 percent.

6.

Has anyone on the Leafs had a weirder season than Pontus Holmberg ? A prominent part of the lineup early on (third-line centre, first-unit PK) to out of the lineup entirely to second-line centre, somehow, in John Tavares absence.

Advertisement Holmberg replaced Max Domi in the middle of that unit, with Nylander and Bobby McMann , to start the third period on Saturday.

The Leafs outshot the Habs 4-2 in Holmbergs 2C minutes and outscored them 1-0.

They were outshot 8-2, with goals even at one apiece, with Domi there.

Holmberg ended up logging over 14 minutes in the win.

He drew a penalty that led to a power-play goal, landed an assist on a Nick Robertson goal and won glowing reviews from head coach Craig Berube afterward.

7.

A stat that makes almost no sense: Holmberg has drawn the most penalties (15) of any Leaf this season three clear of Knies (12) in second spot.

Berube has always been impressed by Holmbergs ability to hang onto the puck.

Perhaps that explains it? 8.

Philippe Myers played only eight minutes in Montreal and got hit for two goals against.

Does Simon Benoit draw back in Monday night against Tampa and if so, who plays with who? 9.

The Leafs still sit at the bottom of the league with only 11 goals from their defence.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson , now up to three goals, is clearly determined to change that.

Hes attempted 20 shots in the last three games, second-most on the team.

He had seven attempts on Saturday and scored once on the power play.

(It might be worth giving him another look on the point of PP1.) 10.

Shots for the Leafs in the last three games: 28, 41, 34.

In focus: Riellys struggles Its been over a decade since Morgan Rielly played as little in a game (that didnt include injury) as he did on Saturday.

He logged just 16:27 in Montreal.

Rielly has played 838 regular-season games.

Saturdays game ranks in the bottom 33 in ice time; most of those games came in his first two seasons in the league.

The last time he drew so little was Dec.

28, 2014, when he was still in his second NHL season and only 20 years old (14:56).

Advertisement Its not like this is an every-game thing; Rielly played over 24 minutes two nights earlier in a resounding win over New Jersey.

But he is absolutely playing less this season; hes down from 23:44 a game, 22nd-most among NHL defenders, to 21:21 a game, 65th among his peers but still tops on the Leafs defence.

Improved personnel around him is part of that.

So is losing a regular spot on the top power-play unit.

Rielly doesnt kill penalties on the regular, either.

Hes lost just over a minute of his five-on-five opportunity.

The problem of late for Rielly is pretty simple: The puck keeps going in when hes on the ice.

Fourteen times overall, in fact, in nine games this month.

Theres some bad luck in there, certainly.

The Leafs have a team save percentage of .843 in those minutes.

One misfire has often led to others.

Rielly, for example, tried to win control of a puck from Joel Armia in the neutral zone late in the first period on Saturday.

He failed and so did his backup, Domi.

Riellys underlying numbers recently arent exactly rosy, though, either: The Leafs are winning only 40 percent of high-danger opportunities when hes on the ice at five-on-five this month.

Hes collected only eight points, meanwhile, in the last 29 games.

I keep coming back to a conversation I had with Rielly before things really started to snowball on him.

It was the first day of January and Rielly felt like he was turning things around after what he believed was an inconsistent start to the season.

Some of that inconsistency, he thought, was related to the adjustment he was trying to make to Berubes system, an adjustment that was perhaps harder for him than any other defenceman on the team.

Unlike Jake McCabe , who played for six (!) head coaches in the previous five seasons and thus has experience adjusting to new systems, Rielly had only one coach dating back to 2019 in Sheldon Keefe.

Advertisement I think it comes down to not chasing and kind of playing more within structure, Rielly said of the adjustment.

There are times I think it gets used when youre describing a young player, but I think its true for older players as well you try to do too much.

At times that works against you.

In other words, Rielly has been trying to change his instincts from doing more to doing less.

Im just trying to play within structure and hold the net front as opposed to going to the puck, he said.

We kinda did change our structure a little bit.

Our D dont really stray as far away from the net as they used to.

So that just takes some getting used to.

Rielly said he was trying to play a little bit more of a patient game.

Like if you watch (McCabe), he said, I think hes good at it.

Its being a bit more of a point guard where youre holding the net front and youre helping direct traffic a little bit rather than chasing it.

At times, Rielly has looked unsure of himself, almost caught in between chasing and staying put.

Mentally, he was almost trying to slow down.

There are certain things that we have in place in terms of, I dont want to say rules but policies that we try to follow that are new and different, and it just takes a little bit of getting used to, he said.

Rielly wasnt trying to make excuses, but rather explain what he had been trying to sort out.

Changes to the way the team breaks out, meanwhile, not to mention a scaled-back rush game, seemed to have lessened the opportunity for Rielly to make a mark offensively.

His most lasting fit partner-wise has been Myers, who barely played in the NHL last season.

Outside of Nylander, Rielly has been the most impactful performer for the Leafs in the postseason.

But right now, its not going well.

The adjustment to a new coach has been rocky.

Advertisement Things I Think I Think Matthews participation in the 4 Nations Face-Off feels like far less of a question mark now with the way hes looked and performed, if its a question mark at all.

Another three weeks like this, with no setbacks, and its hard to imagine Matthews not playing for, and perhaps captaining, Team USA next month.

Hopefully theres no setbacks and everything keeps moving forward, Leafs GM Brad Treliving said last week.

I have to imagine the prospect of Matthews playing still makes the Leafs and their GM a little uneasy.

The undisclosed injury he was previously struggling with has crept up repeatedly this season.

Another flare-up while playing for Team USA could hinder Matthews ability to be healthy down the stretch and into the playoffs.

But if hes healthy(ish) when the tournament rolls around, what can the Leafs really do? Ask him to sit out? More than likely, the decision isnt nailed down until the eve of the tournament.

Things are looking up right now, though.

Stats and research courtesy of Natural Stat Trick , Hockey Reference , Evolving Hockey and Stathead (Photo of Auston Matthews: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.