I wrote that headline to trigger people. There is nothing NHL fans love more than overreactions to anything the Toronto Maple Leafs do. They are the Dallas Cowboys of the NHL. Great regular seasons, and bad playoffs. Easy math.

However, there is no hiding the fact that in the first two games of the season, Auston Matthews is playing out of his goddamn mind. Two hat tricks, mic drop. The first player to do so since Alexander Ovechkin.

By way of comparison, it took him until his 12th game of the previous season against the Boston Bruins to score his sixth goal. Ever since his debut in 2017, he’s consistently ranked among the league’s premier goal scorers. Even following a “down year” in which he managed 40 goals, it’s a remarkable spectacle to witness a revitalized and even more lethal Matthews taking the league by storm once again.

Although it’s still early in the season, one can’t help but admire Matthews’ dominance, having already netted six goals in just two games. He becomes the fifth player in the league’s history, and the first since Alex Ovechkin who accomplished it in 2017-18, to start the season with consecutive hat tricks. What’s truly captivating isn’t just the achievement itself but the manner in which he’s achieving it. While maintaining a pace of 246 goals throughout the season might be unattainable, the prospect of Matthews reaching 60 goals is once again a realistic possibility, or perhaps even more.

AUSTON MATTHEWS HAT TRICK vs Montéal Canadiens courtesy of Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph. #LeafsForever @Bonsie1951 @Jim_Ralph

11/10/2023 pic.twitter.com/1c9SmwqqPB

— LeafsJellyHD (@LeafsJelly) October 12, 2023

All bow to the King of Toronto.