Lightning vs. Maple Leafs - Apr. 17th, 7:00pm - SN, Fan 590

[Bill_Berg]

Many will say 69 is better than 70 anyway.

 

[Bill_Berg]

69 it is.  NICE!

See.

 

[herman]

Signing Cade Webber time

 

[Guilt Trip]

Great season for Matthews...incredible

 

[ZBBM]

Great season for Matthews...incredible

I doubt he'll be named MVP but doing what he did is harder than getting 150 points IMO.  Just a bit harder, mind you.  Both are amazing feats of offensive skill.

 

[lamajama]

Great season for Matthews...incredible

I doubt he'll be named MVP but doing what he did is harder than getting 150 points IMO.  Just a bit harder, mind you.  Both are amazing feats of offensive skill.

To me, scoring goals is far harder than assists?you have two chances for an assist and scoring goals IS the name of the game?.

 

[Guilt Trip]

Great season for Matthews...incredible

I doubt he'll be named MVP but doing what he did is harder than getting 150 points IMO.  Just a bit harder, mind you.  Both are amazing feats of offensive skill.

I think he may get the Lindsay. Players know how hard it is to score goals and that was a season to remember.

 

[bustaheims]

I think he may get the Lindsay. Players know how hard it is to score goals and that was a season to remember.

I'm confident that will be be MacKinnon. He's scored 50+ but will have close to (or possibly more than) 140 points - if he plays tonight, at least. Matthews will get votes, but, I just can't see him beating MacKinnon, who should also take home the Hart.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I think he may get the Lindsay. Players know how hard it is to score goals and that was a season to remember.

I'm confident that will be be MacKinnon. He's scored 50+ but will have close to (or possibly more than) 140 points - if he plays tonight, at least. Matthews will get votes, but, I just can't see him beating MacKinnon, who should also take home the Hart.

I think the Hart is going to come down to MacKinnon or Kucherov, and the Lindsay between McDavid or Matthews.

 

[cw]

Like so many Leafs fans, I was pulling for 70.
Sorry he didn't get it but it turned out to not be such a big deal for me.

I was reflecting and thought I'd take a look at the list of top goal scorers in NHL history to refresh my sense of them and maybe get some perspective of where Matthews fits. The first shocking thing for me was player #194 on the list, Nels Stewart, was the first one I encountered that I hadn't seen play. I think I remembered all the others - stopping around 250. Maybe I missed one. Crazy. Matthews is 138th in all time goal scoring - not far behind Lindros - higher (~114th) if scoring eras/adjustments are taken into account.

I then asked myself "how many of those guys played 'two way' hockey - the "200 foot game"?
I mean really played it - didn't dabble. I wasn't as sure about some of them - didn't remember them that well ....
I came up with about 20-25% of them - ballpark rough impression. Matthews would be in that group.
To me, a bunch of them were what we called back then 'goal sucks' - they didn't give a crap about the defensive game. Or they made the other guys get the puck to them while they hung out around the crease/slot to bang it in. I do not regard them as highly - few did.

To me, Matthews is already comfortably within the top 50 of all time who played a 200 ft game and scored a lot of goals. He'll be among the finest goal scorers ever if he continues as he has - if he isn't already. We are blessed and witnessing something very special.

Whether he got 69 or 70 goals this year seems so trivial.

 

[YYZ]

Like so many Leafs fans, I was pulling for 70.
Sorry he didn't get it but it turned out to not be such a big deal for me.

I was reflecting and thought I'd take a look at the list of top goal scorers in NHL history to refresh my sense of them and maybe get some perspective of where Matthews fits. The first shocking thing for me was player #194 on the list, Nels Stewart, was the first one I encountered that I hadn't seen play. I think I remembered all the others - stopping around 250. Maybe I missed one. Crazy. Matthews is 138th in all time goal scoring - not far behind Lindros - higher (~114th) if scoring eras/adjustments are taken into account.

I then asked myself "how many of those guys played 'two way' hockey - the "200 foot game"?
I mean really played it - didn't dabble. I wasn't as sure about some of them - didn't remember them that well ....
I came up with about 20-25% of them - ballpark rough impression. Matthews would be in that group.
To me, a bunch of them were what we called back then 'goal sucks' - they didn't give a crap about the defensive game. Or they made the other guys get the puck to them while they hung out around the crease/slot to bang it in. I do not regard them as highly - few did.

To me, Matthews is already comfortably within the top 50 of all time who played a 200 ft game and scored a lot of goals. He'll be among the finest goal scorers ever if he continues as he has - if he isn't already. We are blessed and witnessing something very special.

Whether he got 69 or 70 goals this year seems so trivial.

Yes 69 or 70 is really trivial.  The last player to get to 69 was almost 30 years ago.  For Matthews to get to 69 while being a very very good defensive player, there's not much else to ask for.  To top it off, he gets the hardest match ups every single game, and get's keyed in on game in game out all game long.  Truly remarkable. 

 

[Joe S.]

I think he may get the Lindsay. Players know how hard it is to score goals and that was a season to remember.

I'm confident that will be be MacKinnon. He's scored 50+ but will have close to (or possibly more than) 140 points - if he plays tonight, at least. Matthews will get votes, but, I just can't see him beating MacKinnon, who should also take home the Hart.

To be honest, I don?t think Matthews will be in the top 3. I think he?ll find himself 4th in voting.

As a fan, I could care less, but I?m sure as a player it?s disappointing.