That’s what it boils down to, period.
With 39 goals in 54 games, Sam Reinhart is having a career year for the Florida Panthers, and usual suspects Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning and David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins are keeping pace with 36 goals and 34 goals, respectively.
Barring injury, however, Matthews is in line to win the Rocket Richard Trophy for third time in four years, scoring at a pace that would have him finishing with 71 goals.
Piling up 45 goals in 51 games is taking Matthews to an area where he’s untouchable.
Before the lone NHL game on Friday night, there were 72 hat tricks across the league in 2023-24. Matthews has five of them, including four at home. Only three other teams — Anaheim, Edmonton and Vancouver — have five in total. Six teams don’t have one player with a hat trick this season.
Next up for Matthews and the Leafs is a visit by the Ducks on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena, a game that will end Toronto’s three-game home stand. In 12 career games against the Ducks, Matthews has seven goals.
Though Matthews’ hat trick was the focus after the game (rightfully so) on Thursday, the play of Benoit and Liljegren against the Flyers wasn’t diminished.
Liljegren played 24 minutes, 27 seconds and set up a pair of goals including the overtime winner by William Nylander. Only once in 175 previous NHL games did Liljegren get more ice time, in December 2022 against the Dallas Stars.
Benoit fought for the fourth time as a Maple Leaf and had another one of his meat-and-potaotes stat lines: A team-high seven hits and three blocked shots.
General manager Brad Treliving is seeking depth defencemen as the March 8 trade deadline approaches, but the straightforward, physical manner of Benoit has taken some of the urgency out of trying to add immediately.
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