MILAN — Team USA captain Auston Matthews put forth arguably his best offensive game Sunday night against Germany since the ‘C’ was stitched onto his red, white and blue jersey back at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
With two goals and an assist in the Americans’ Group C-clinching 5-1 win at Santagiulia Arena, Matthews had his most effective game of the preliminary round and appears to be ramping his play up just in time for the quarterfinal matchup against the winner of the game between Sweden and Latvia on Wednesday.
“It seemed like everything he touched turned into a grade A chance or a great play or a strong defensive breakup,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “He was awesome. He’s our captain. We’re following his lead.”
The narrative surrounding Matthews’ lack of offense at 4 Nations naturally followed him here.
He posted just three assists in three games through the NHL’s precursor to the Olympics.
A goal and an assist from Matthews through the first couple games wasn’t nothing, but the leadership shown from Brady Tkachuk only furthered a narrative questioning who the real leader of Team USA is.
On Sunday night, Matthews was in the middle of everything.
In front of the net, with the puck on his stick and centering a second line that made a notable impact on the game.
“I think it’s inspiring,” head coach Mike Sullivan said when asked what Matthews’ performance Sunday means to the team. “Players lead different ways. Auston isn’t the most vocal guy. He’s a quiet guy by nature, but he leads through his example in the way he plays the game. Not only his talent, his skill level is on display out there. Everybody sees it, but he doing a lot of the little things. His defensive game gets underrated. He tracks back hard. He’s committed defensively in the defensive zone. There’s an element of physicality to his game. He’s getting inside. The goal he scores at the blue paint is a perfect example, those types of goals. And then he has the ability to make, game-breaking plays, like he does on the first goal that we scored, the seam pass.
“So I think it inspires the group with the way that he played tonight. And all our guys know what he’s capable of. We all know what he’s capable of. He’s an elite player. He’s one of the best players in the world. And so when he does a lot of little things, and he’s committed to play on both sides of the puck like he is tonight, I think he’s an inspiration to all of them.”
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The Americans are going to need the goal-scoring version of Matthews if they hope to counter Canada’s high-powered offense.
This was the note the California native wanted to go into the knockout stage on.
“He’s been great all tournament,” Jake Guentzel said. “You guys put a lot of heat on him for no reason. He’s just an unbelievable player and plays in all situations.”
