Auston Matthews is a freak of nature: Leafs Morning Take

Auston Matthews is now pace for 77 goals.

In front of family and friends at Mullett Arena on Wednesday night, the Arizona native notched No. 50 and 51 on the season as the Leafs smashed the Coyotes 6-3 for win No. 5 in a row.

That’s right. Incredibly, Toronto won all five games without Morgan Rielly. He’s slated to return on Thursday night in Sin City.

We kept things light to kick off the Thursday edition of Leafs Morning Take. Firstly, Rosey broke down tape of a 52-year-old Donald Brashear fighting in the Quebec Pro League. After that, we dissected Sportico’s latest top-100 list of its most valuable sports teams in the world, based on recent franchise valuations. The Leafs came in at No. 82. Interesting.

Presented by Door Dash, The Appetizer focused on the huge win in Arizona. Of course, a lot of the chat stemmed around Matthews’ greatness. After that, we touched on some of the defenders – like Timothy Liljegren and T.J. Brodie – who stepped up in the absence of Rielly. We also talked about Bobby McMann and his growing price tag. The 27-year-old is slated to become a UFA this summer.

Thanks to Douglas, we picked apart the Joseph Woll news from Wednesday. The 25-year-old’s expected to play a game in the AHL this weekend and could be on track to return next week for the Maple Leafs.

Courtesy of Great Clips, we introduced a new weekly mailbag segment sourced from the YouTube chat. Naturally – with Arizona being Wednesday night’s opponent – we were asked about the Leafs potentially circling back on Matt Dumba ahead of the trade deadline.

 

Lastly, brought to you by the Wendy’s Daily Faceoff Survivor, we previewed the Toronto/Vegas game. Morgan Rielly will return from his five-game suspension as the Leafs look for their sixth in a row. Toronto’s 4-3-0 in the second game of a back-to-back this season.

Be sure to join us on Friday for a full recap of Toronto/Vegas plus an all-encompassing preview of Saturday night’s tilt in Colorado.