Auston Matthews is Back
Through a dozen games of the 2023/24 season, Auston Matthews leads the NHL with 13 goals. He is the first Maple Leaf with at least that many goals in the first 12 games since Rick Vaive had 14 almost exactly 40 years ago. Matthews has 4 multiple-goal games in his first dozen (including 3 hat-tricks) but has been kept scoreless in half of the games. Forty years ago, Vaive scored in 8 of 12 games with only one hat-trick and five multi-goal games. NHL scoring leaders on November 1, 1983. On Nov. 1, 1983, Vaive was one goal ahead of both Wayne Gretzky and Vancouver's Tony Tanti. As the season progressed, Vaive slowed down a bit and potted 40 more goals in his final 64 games to finish fifth overall with 52 goals. Tanti, himself slowed even more, with 33 goals over his last 67 games to total 45 total, good for 12th in the league. Gretzky, of course, found another gear soon after, scoring a ridiculous 75 more goals in his final 62 games (he missed 6 due to injury). In fact, The Great On