BOSTON — On Wednesday night in Tampa Bay, Auston Matthews went for it.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were already locked into their playoff spot as the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic Division no matter what happened that night, so he took a shot at history. Or more accurately 12 shots at history.
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While his 69 goals were already a nice season, Matthews tried to join the NHL’s uber-elite 70-goals-in-a-season club. But rarely-used Lightning backup Matt Tomkins will forever be able to tell his friends and relatives that he stopped Matthews a dozen times.
“I wanted it for sure, but it wasn’t meant to be,” said Matthews, who had six hat tricks and 18 multi-goal games this season. “But the most important thing is the team and making sure I’m pulling my weight and making sure I’m doing what I can as a leader on this team to help the team as we go into the postseason. It would have been nice, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
Matthews and the Leafs will be in Boston on Saturday night to begin their best-of-seven first -round series with the Bruins at 8 p.m. at TD Garden.
“We have to turn our attention to Boston and the playoffs,” he added. “This is where we want to have our success. For me individually I want to take another step. We obviously turned the page now and get focused on that.”
For the Bruins, turning their attention to Toronto means turning their attention to Matthews, who had three goals and an assist against Boston this year in four regular season games.
“We have to be aware of their top-end forwards. You have to stay over the top of them. We can’t give up odd-man rushes. We have to make them defend,” said Montgomery, who coached the Matthews-captained team at the NHL’s All-Star weekend.
Morgan Geekie said the key with all of Toronto’s elite forwards was to shrink their operating area.
“You give any good player time and space they’re going to figure out things to do with the puck and they’re going to make plays,” he said. “Try to eliminate that and just be heavy. We’re going to try to play our game and be heavy and try to take that time and space away from them.”
Montgomery said the Bruins will be hyper-aware of when Matthews and the Leafs top lines are on the ice and who they’ve got countering them.
“I think in the regular season you can give a little more leash to see how they can handle certain matchups,” he said. “When it comes playoff time you’re a little more strict with who you’re utilizing against certain people.”
Matthews averaged .852 goals per game this season and is at .654 for his career in the regular season. He has just 22 goals in 50 playoff games for .440 goals per game. But at age 26, coach Sheldon Keefe thinks he hasn’t peaked yet.
“The sky is the limit. He’s shown that. He’s playing well and feeling good. The fact that it’s a quick turnaround right into the playoffs should benefit someone like Auston who has been in a good groove, feeling good,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a different point in the year and he’s going to be a focal point of the opposition, no doubt.”
