The New Jersey Devils are riding a high on Wednesday morning. The team is preparing their first back-to-back of the season, and they just beat the Toronto Maple Leafs for the first time in over a year. This gave Sheldon Keefe his first win against his former team since he was fired in 2024. Everyone is riding high after a 5-1-0 start that includes wins against the Leafs, Oilers, Panthers, and Lightning.
Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs are in crisis mode. It’s way early, but there are issues with the Leafs that need to be addressed. Their goalie, New Jersey native Anthony Stolarz, called his team out after their overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken. He even called William Nylander out by name.
Devils fans thought they were going into a trap. The Leafs had extra motivations after a poor performance, and they should have wanted to show their coach that they had heart.
Their coach is, of course, Craig Berube. There were heavy rumors that the Devils also targeted Berube in 2024, but he chose the Leafs as his next destination. He brings a hard-nosed style that many think helps teams win in the NHL today. Berube was the guy in charge when the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019.
So, when he had choice words for his captain, it made us all raise an eyebrow.
Berube on the long process of trying to get the Matthews line rolling:
— Jesse Blake (@JesseBlake) October 22, 2025
“It’s obviously not good enough. I don’t feel like they have any sustained pressure in the offensive zone.”
“I’m getting tired of it to be honest with you.”@sdpnsports 😳
"Getting tired of it" is such an aggressive phrase, but it shows the frustration that many have with Matthews right now. That includes those who live and breathe Maple Leafs hockey. When one is asked to describe someone who lives and breathes Maple Leafs hockey, most point to Steve Dangle.
Dangle has gotten famous on his reactions, and overreactions, to Maple Leafs wins and losses. His live streams of playoff games get hundreds of thousands of views.
We were curious what he would say after this performance. To be honest, it was more reserved than we were used to. Dangle wasn't his angry self, probably because he was still riding high after the Toronto Blue Jays went to the World Series.
"Auston Matthews, that might have been the worst game of his career. Like I'm not kidding. In the regular season, that might have been the worst game of his career."Steve Dangle
That seems like a lofty declaration, but is he wrong? Matthews did a few decent things on the stat sheet, including taking three shots and creating three rebounds. Only Matthew Knies had a better ixG (basically offensive impact) on the Leafs. However, the numbers and analytics aren’t perfect.
NHL GameScore Impact Card for Toronto Maple Leafs on 2025-10-21: pic.twitter.com/HHQ5ix3StI
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) October 22, 2025
The numbers behind the numbers show a situation where the coaching staff put Matthews in a position to succeed, and he failed. Matthews was on the ice for two goals against, and he didn’t score a goal nor see any of his linemates score a goal. His chances were kind of there, but they didn’t go in the back of the net.
Meanwhile, Berube used Matthews for 16 offensive-zone faceoffs. He only asked him to start his shift on a faceoff in the neutral zone or defensive zone a total of six times. Despite that advantage, his numbers were at best even. At worst, he was getting drilled.
Was this the worst game of Matthews career? The numbers don’t show that, but the game is about more than numbers and statistics. How everyone sees Matthews coming out of this game is about as low as its been maybe in his career.