All I can say is that this was inevitable. When John Tavares was named captain of the Leafs, Auston “Underpants” Matthews had found himself in some hot water due to an incident in which he mooned a security guard, but not really because he only pulled down his pants but not his drawers? Either way, it was a bad time to consider him for the captaincy because his maturity level was obviously not where it needed to be. In the meantime, Tavares was the perfect solution. He had already captained a team, was a steady producer on the ice, had a quiet and respectful demeanor and his childhood bedroom was littered with Toronto Maple Leafs paraphernalia. What more could management ask for? A buttoned down, boring as plain white paper, no personality or drama NHL star was waiting and deserving of the captaincy.
It was the correct choice, in theory. Some argued that Matthews should have been named captain anyway. Others voted for Morgan Rielly, whose personality appears to be a step above Tavares’ vanilla flavour….. butterscotch if you will. Rielly would have been a solid choice as well in my opinion, but I digress.
Matthews has matured, it appears. He has a vocal personality and is easily the teams best player. He’s on pace to be the games greatest goal scorer of all time and if he could just get better in games 4-7 in a playoff series he could help lead the team through some tough playoff games as well. My hope is that he figures that out, as well as understands the gravity of wearing the “C” in Toronto. A mountain of expectations were just lumped on his shoulders and it’s fair to wonder if he’s up to the task of carrying it.