It’s a fine line to walk between the Stanley Cup playoffs and regular-season requirements. The NHL wants its teams to field their strongest lineups because spectators spend a lot of money to watch the world’s best players play. While load management has grown in importance for teams enduring the arduous 82-game schedule, teams also want to know with certainty who will play in the post-season, which necessitates keeping players in the starting lineup.
That said, sometimes a team has no choice but to sit out a star player. The Edmonton Oilers have been without superstar center Connor McDavid in practice, with coach Kris Knoblauch saying McDavid’s day-to-day with an injury. McDavid currently sits at 99 assists on the year, so you’d have to think getting to the 100-assist level is a goal for him – at least, when he’s fully healthy.
In a perfect world, Matthews would probably take a rest for the final couple of games the Buds have left on their schedule. But the opportunity to score five more goals and reach 70 on the season is too tempting to keep Matthews from sitting out the end of Toronto’s schedule. If you don’t think Matthews cares about hitting 70 goals, you haven’t been watching Leafs games of late. Matthews’ teammates have been constantly trying to set up Matthews to score – current linemate Max Domi has been feeding Matthews endlessly, even at Domi’s own expense. And Matthews has been firing shots at the opposition’s net from all parts of the offensive zone, hoping for a bit of puck luck to get him closer to 70 goals.
It’s not like he will be crestfallen if he doesn’t score 70 – he’s already got a career-best with 65 goals – but we have to think getting to the 70-goal plateau is important to him on some level.
It’s true you want your players at their peak, but that shouldn’t automatically mean taking key contributors out of the lineup in the hope they’ll have more energy in the first round. To be sure, if you want them to be confident, the best way to do that is to keep them on the ice right through the end of the year. Appearing in back-to-back games on back-to-back nights the way Matthews will likely do on Tuesday against New Jersey is the Leafs telling him they want him hitting his stride at the perfect time of year. If that results in him hitting the 70-goal mark, that’s gravy. “I just want to get everyone involved”
