Oh the firestorm was lit and TSN’s Gary Lawless did it to the the most easily agitated and arguably insecure fan base the Toronto Maple Leafs when he wrote an article saying Patrick Laine was better Auston Matthews.
It caused a Twitter firestorm and unfortunately even the so-called smart guys took the bait.
Not only did they take it they took like a grouper swallowing it’s prey whole. Give Lawless credit he laid out his reasoning and premise in his piece and has followed up with it being his opinion. That’s his job.
But why did people take the bait? Listen to the subsequent appearance on TSN on their afternoon show with Jeff O’neill and Brian Hayes. Why did the show’s hosts come to defend Matthews?
Look at this in the light it was presented in, a national columnist based on a small market with a local radio show wrote an opinion piece about a player based in that market. The comparative happened to be another rookie player in the largest hockey market with more media coverage than most other markets ten-fold.
Was it designed to provoke yes but why was it wrong? What has happened is Lawless took a hot issue for one fan base and challenged it and the story is not that he did but the response. The pure level of offence some took to the piece is what the story is… not who’s better.
Listen to that appearance and the way the show goes about challenging the article. Lawless proved his opinion in the piece but there was no proof about what Matthews had done to say he’s better, just ‘he scored four goals’.
There’s lots of valid reasons to discuss the value of either player and no one, not even Lawless, is saying what we see now is definitive but if nothing changes in either player’s trajectory it’s likely that Lawless is right. Why is that hard to stomach.
For Winnipeg fans they have already been having this debate since 2011, it’s the old Scheifele vs Couturier argument. While Flyers fans probably could care less about who’s better some Jets fans need to rub it in that Chevy did make the right choice. I find that Leafs fans get so salty about it so fast interesting.
If Matthews does end up being number two over his career compared to Laine does that mean the Leafs were wrong? Why were so many on Twitter, blogs and boards so ready to find holes in Lawless’s piece. Examples of goals vs shots for past players were examined, posts flew out about how to evaluate players and then some just simply wanted to deny that anyone could have this opinion. What if Laine is better? Why is that a bad thing? What if it proves out that another player from this draft class rises up and exceeds both of them? Does anyone care about the Taylor Hall Tyler Seguin debate from six years ago? How about Landeskog vs Nugent-Hopkins?
The Leafs fan base is simply ripe for this kind of thing and a guy who is a savvy media veteran put his name and opinion front and centre at an important time point. In his last 5 games (prior to Thursday night) Laine has 5 goals and 7 points while Matthews has 3 goals. The piece was was timed perfectly too, one player in a hot streak the other just having 3 goals in the same time.
The real story it seems is how one side of the debate feels so challenged about the notion that Laine could be better. The first responses were not about the idea of ‘far too early to say’ they wanted to pick apart the argument of Lawless his position. The part I found interesting was that the cries of ‘Laine doesn’t play with two rookies’ coming from certain areas. These are the some of the same people who in the past have discounted quality of teammates metrics.
Laine is certainly at an advantage there compared to Matthews and perhaps the results show it. Then the roles by the position type come in and how centre’s have different responsibilities, especially defensively. There is some truth to this but there is also truth to the idea that the best players tend to be good in all areas of the ice and Laine has some areas to grow in that regard.
But the essence of Lawless’ piece was simply based on what we see right now, Laine is doing something every night that gets fans out of their seats and makes people believe in him in a different manner. Is it a technical vs gifted talent situation? It just might be that simple.
While Matthews may have a different role and set of skills that help a more technical measurement of the game Laine stuns you with his talent. One is easier to see and appreciate and right now that’s why we see a piece like the one Lawless wrote.
Laine is a far better skater than given credit, he has puck-handling skills that no one really understood before, and his understanding of the game was vastly underrated as he was billed an Ovechkin-like shooter prior to entering the NHL. He’s become so much more and that’s why the idea that he could be better than Mathews is plausible.
Right now he is. If you had to pick a rookie MVP thus far this season you’d give it to Laine and twice on Sundays. It’s not even close. What is up for debate is the trajectory and endpoint for both players. The Matthews loyalists will say that the underlying numbers and skills are better for him long-term. That’s fair. However, the Laine camp will tell you that you can teach the technical nuances of the game, the new-age tactics, skating and more but you can’t simply apply god-given skill, a true intangible when you want.
It’s for these reasons that the debate rages on, so hotly contested and discussed. Again, though why? It strikes a nerve for both fan bases because of their history. For the Leafs it’s the bungling hapless attempts to be good for so many years, having stars and never making it to the Cup final or even that close. With the Jets it’s the insecurity of a city not being deemed worthy enough to have an NHL team and the fear of losing it again. Let Laine be good and no one will let him leave like they did with Selanne.
It’s a shame these two teams, which are closer than Winnipeg and Vancouver, don’t play each other more often. While some want to watch the McDavid - Matthews match-up, (one that is not even close) the real match is and hopefully will be for years to come Matthews vs Laine. One vs two from 2016. Instead of worrying about who’s better or will be we should really hope that we get to watch the two for a very long time, then after their careers are over we can debate like them like any great tandem matchups in NHL history.
Hopefully by then we’ll have the means to really quantify how good they really are.