Men's General

BUFFALO, N.Y. — You’re a Toronto Maple Leafs diehard who knows it’s more affordable to watch your favourite team live in Buffalo.

Even if that means driving two hours on Easter Weekend, waiting at the border, converting your weak dollars and, possibly, springing for a hotel room.

If you’re willing to do all that for what — standings-wise — looks like another mostly meaningless game, if you’re a real one, well, you probably deserve a Holy Saturday like this one, delivered by the organization’s hopeful saviour.

NHL life came full circle for Auston Matthews at KeyBank Centre, as he became the only active player to score 60 goals for a second time, in the same building the Maple Leafs chose him One.

And because the Buffalo Sabres are stuck fumbling around their 13th annual spring of irrelevance, fans of Matthews and the team way eastbound down the QEW swallowed up the seats and soaked up all the joy.

“If you’re not going to get it at home, this is probably second best,” smiled coach Sheldon Keefe, whose spent his career watching Leafs records crumble. 

“It was a great. I loved the way the fans acknowledged it, too.”

When Matthews finally knocked in his fifth shot of the game with a little more than five minutes remaining in Toronto’s 3-0 shutout party on the road, he celebrated with a fist pump so explosive, it could’ve knocked out Mike Tyson and Logan Paul at once.

The crowd leapt to its collective feet. 

An “M-V-P!” chorus swelled through the barn as the mustachioed superstar was mobbed by teammates.

Those replaced the “We! Want! Six-ty!” chants that had burst during the first two frames, whenever Matthews hopped the boards, or the Leafs earned a power-play.

“Yeah, I’ve heard it the last couple games,” Matthews acknowledged post-game, after firing 17 shots on net between goals 59 and 60.

“Just trying to stay focused and just go out there and play my game. I feel like the last couple of games, plenty of really good chances. Not all of them have gone in, but just stayed with it. Keep shooting. And fortunate that one landed at my feet there and bang it home.”

Not only is Matthews the only active NHLer with two 60-goal campaigns to his name (yes, that includes all-time record-chaser Alex Ovechkin), he is the only American-born player to do so and only the ninth in the history of the sport.

“It’s hard to think about stuff like that, honestly,” Matthews said. “It’s special.”

Captain John Tavares calls Matthews “the total package” for his ability to steal pucks, shutdown top centremen, create plays, and now chip in on the penalty kill.

That 45 of Matthews’ goals this season have come at even-strength and that only one was deposited into an empty net makes this 60 so remarkable.

Matthews’ next goal will break a Maple Leafs record (his) for most in a single season in franchise history.

“I just don’t think he sits on it. And I don’t think he really sets limits on himself. I think he just wants to continue to get better and work on his game and go out there every night and be consistent and impact it,” Tavares said. 

“Big picture, hitting certain numbers, I don’t think it’s something he focuses on, but certainly he wants to continue to be one of the best in the world and drive our team and obviously make an impact on the scoresheet with the way he can play the game.” 

Despite making history, Matthews conceded the game’s first star to goalie Ilya Samsonov, who turned in a 34-save perfect sheet.

“I don’t even have words,” Matthews said, moments after hugging the smiling Russian in the arena hallway. “All night he played an incredible for us.”

It wasn’t just the stellar glove saves on the penalty kill, stoning Dylan Cozens on a breakaway, or owning his space by slashing Zach Benson for getting in his grill. 

Keefe revealed that goalie coach Curtis Sanford had crowned Samsonov’s performance as the goaltender’s best from a technical and positioning standpoint.

Confidence high, Samsonov smiled slyly when asked about his previous game in Buffalo, a 9-3 Christmas massacre that contributed to his midseason trip to the waiver wire. 

“I don’t remember what happened last time,” he replied. “Nine goals? F— that s—. It’s long time ago.”

While their individual stories seem worlds apart, both Matthews and Samsonov are on the same page.

Samsonov framed Saturday’s win a “team shutout,” just as Matthews said hitting 60 is “as much of a team accomplishment, in my opinion, as an individual one.”

Well, there’s nine games still to play. Plenty of time for another accomplishments.

“I want to see 70,” Samsonov said.

Fox’s Fast Five

• Playing in his 1,100th game, Tavares opened the scoring… with his Buffalo lacrosse legend uncle’s “John Tavares 11” banner wafting in the KeyBank rafters.

Mark Giordano welcomed the captain to the 1,100 Club postgame while passing Matthews the belt.

“Good omen for me, considering the number 11 I wore and watched a lot as a kid. So, pretty cool to hit 1,100 games here,” Tavares said.

“I just feel so fortunate to have one of the greatest athletes, I think, in our country, the over the last generation [in my family]. Growing up, you don’t really recognize that; you just look at him as your Uncle John.

“I’ve been really fortunate to soak in a lot from him just as an uncle but then obviously as an athlete, so he continues to do amazing things. He’s done playing, but the impact he’s having as a coach and on the game of lacrosse and in sport is phenomenal.”

• Ilya Lyubushkin spent just one season with the Sabres, yet he maintains friendships with the people he met in Buffalo. His old neighbours, especially. 

They came to watch one of his games in Toronto already and own a large property with a pond. They’d let the D-man’s kids go fishing in their pond and rip around together on four-wheelers.

“It’s so nice,” Lyubushkin says.

• Here’s Bobby “Top Six” McMann on what it’s like to skate on a line with Tavares and William Nylander: 

“It’s a little different playing with them. You never know when you’re gonna get the puck or what they’re gonna do with it. So, you always gotta be ready. But I think it’s been good so far. They just demand high execution all the time. They expect you to make plays, and that’s the type of game I want to play. So, it’s pushing me to be a better player and get them the puck and vice versa. Because I think we’re all good enough that we can make plays.”

• Signs you’re on the verge of a 13-year playoff drought: The Sabres thank every individual person who has renewed their season tickets on the Jumbotron.

• Don’t look now, but Toronto’s oft-maligned penalty kill went 6-for-6 and has now snuffed out 11 consecutive power-plays. Its best run in nearly two months is a result of video work, strategic adjustments, and a more aggressive mindset.

“We’ve put a lot of time on it,” Keefe says, “and the guys have bought in.

“The early returns have been good, but it’s a small sample at this point. We want to continue to build on it.”

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