There was a great deal made last week of an incident between Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews and Philadelphia Flyers forward Travis Konecny. The incident occurred in the final moments of the third period, and appeared to stem from Matthews taking issue with some of the physicality from Konency on the night.
The two men would exchange slashes but nothing more would come of it than that, due in large part to Matthews showing no interest whatsoever in dropping the gloves. Matthews would receive quite a bit of criticism for not being more willing to engage with Konency at the end of the game, instead choosing to stand there and smile as chaos erupted around him.
Given his love for the more physical aspects of the game you might assume that former National Hockey League head coach Don Cherry would find himself among those voices, but while Cherry was critical of Matthews over the incident on his podcast this week it might not be for the reasons you would have expected.
Instead of being critical of Matthews for not engaging with Konency, Cherry instead felt that Matthews had engaged too much for a player of his stature.
"I like Matthews, he's a good goal scorer and everything but you just can't do that when you're a goal scorer," said Cherry of Matthews on his most recent podcast.
Cherry also indicated that he wasn't a huge fan of Matthews simply standing there and laughing either.
"He's gotta learn, just skate away," said Cherry of Matthews. "Don't stand there laughing while some other guy is fighting your battle for you."
Instead Cherry pointed to the patience of NHL legend Guy Lafleur as something that Matthews should strive for, while also making note of one rather infamous exception to Lafleur's legendary patience.
"You have to take it like Lafleur," said Cherry. "The only time Lafleur ever got mad was when him and Mike Milbury used to go at it."
In conclusion Cherry made it short and sweet.
"Don't start anything and just leave it alone and when the fight is going on don't stand there and laugh," concluded Cherry.
