Real reason behind Auston Matthews’ recent struggles exposed!

It’s been a tough season for Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews. And some fans and pundits have dug a little deeper and found out the real reason behind the captain’ struggles.

According to Kevin Papetti, Matthews’ issues appear to start at the very beginning: taking a shot. Matthews has been shooting at an abysmal 8.8% at 5v5; he’s not scoring a lot when things are even, and without his special teams production, his numbers could be even worse.

This is the first time in his career that Matthews is shooting under 10% at 5v5, and it’s worse when we see how the Maple Leafs have been undisciplined this season and can’t rely on just the power play to win games.

Sure, some will debate that Matthews has taken on a more defensive role this season, but Matthews still needs to figure out how to put the puck in the net again.

On different occasions this season, the captain has called out his own teammates on their inconsistencies, but Matthews is just as guilty.

It probably does not help that he’s missed 15 games with injuries, but he still hasn’t produced as much as he’s expected. It’s still impressive seeing that Matthews has collected 27 goals and 63 points in 55 games this year, but the numbers still put him on pace for his worst output in his career. He only has 12 games left on the regular calendar to get over the 30-goal plateau. If he fails, that wil be the first time since he was selected first overall by Toronto in 2016.

More than ever now, with the C on his chest, Matthews needs to lead by example and definitely has to fix this before we enter the postseason.