Ray Ferraro

And now they both seemingly kind of...

Vegas won five in a row, and the Leafs have been on this great run outside the Utah game.

So it kind of feels like they're where they thought they would be, like playing-wise right now.

uh matthews i i don't i don't really care whatever else has been going on or what's better now and the goaltending's been really good and um you know they're getting a a little more play out of the edges of their lineup like that you know before robertson got banged up like that line had given them a little bit of something all those things matter the power play has been better of course since they changed the maybe their approach when when savard was let go but it

We've talked about this before.

I don't know sometimes if those guys realize how outsized their importance is to their team when they're that good.

But when Matthews was average, the team has no chance.

The other guys can do what they want, but he's a star for a reason.

And he does things other people can't do.

You know, the goalie scored, I guess it was in Colorado, and he drags it into his feet and just rifles it over the goalie, over Miner's shoulder.

Like, there's not ten guys in the league that can do that.

There's not five guys that can do that.

And so, to me, it all circulates around him.

I mean, there's lots of reasons.

There's never one thing.

But, man, he changes the complexion of everything.

It's funny.

It's different because he doesn't play 24 minutes a night.

He doesn't kill penalties like he was killing penalties in Toronto.

Cassidy coaches a different game.