Auston Matthews cracks a smile during practice with his United States teammates in Milan. They open play on Thursday against Latvia.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
As Auston Matthews came into the mixed zone after Team USA’s first practice on Sunday, you could tell something had changed.
First, he was smiling. The Matthews everyone knows in Toronto goes into interviews looking like he’s about to be deposed. The muscles at the side of his mouth were twitching a bit, maybe because it had been so long since he exercised them like this.
Then someone told a funny about how teammate Matthew Tkachuk said that he’s the most famous hockey player in the village, and Matthews laughed. This wasn’t a Toronto Maple Leafs’ laugh – ‘Ha ha, God, I hate my life so much, ha ha.’ This was a real laugh. He even snorted a little.
His body posture was different. You’re used to seeing him hunched slightly, in case he has to flee. When he scrums in the Leafs’ locker room, he has the habit of leaning back against a shelf that crosses one end of the room and wrapping his hands around it in a death grip, like he’s expecting to be hit with a brick. Which he sometimes is.
In Milan, he’s straight up and down. Visibly looser. Leaned forward. Relaxed.
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Matthews usually speaks in the droning tone of someone trying to remember their alibi. Here, he was making things up as he went along. Being expansive.
Here he is on the topic of what it’s like to be amongst other athletes in the Olympic village: “It’s a pretty, like, intimate setting. You get to see what they go through on a daily basis, compared to what you’re used to in your sport.”
You can imagine all the ways this guy’s mind was being blown on Sunday. They make beds for one person? What is the purpose of this machine that releases water and then agitates it for a set amount of time? It washes what? Don’t the people who pick up your clothes do that themselves?
Auston Matthews is on human sports safari in Milan and I’ll tell you brother, he is having a blast. He hasn’t looked like he’s had this much fun since the 10 minutes between being drafted first overall and being handed a map.
Often showing little emotion in Toronto, Auston Matthews was full of personality and seemed to be at ease with Team USA in Milan on Sunday, Cathal Kelly writes.David Zalubowski/The Associated Press
Here’s an idea for the Leafs. Instead of trying to switch out their roster engine while the car is still moving, why not hire a single hypnotist to brainwash Matthews into thinking Toronto is Milan? Put up a few signs in Italian at the Scotiabank Arena. Have Craig Berube start every practice with, ‘Ciao, ragazzi.’
Better yet, after they’ve burnt down the team executive, hire a couple of Italians to run things. Which Italians? Any Italians.
Will it make the Leafs better? They can’t be any worse. Plus, I absolutely guarantee you that the food will improve.
This version of Auston Matthews doesn’t mean the Leafs can be saved. What it does suggest is that the team shouldn’t need so much rescuing in the first place.
Now that you see him happy, how is it that they have made their most valuable human asset so consistently miserable? Don’t talk to me about fans. The fans are capricious everywhere. That’s a doom loop the Leafs have created over decades. It’s not reasonable to expect the people paying your salary to also run your HR department.
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As for the media, they’re too easy on the Leafs. You want hard? Lose three games in a row at Real Madrid. You’ll have guys from Madrid-based Marca trying to climb through your basement windows.
A lot of things have to change for the Leafs in the next few weeks. Were I in charge, getting Matthews into this headspace permanently would be job No. 1.
Why is this environment better for him? It’s not pressure. There is much more pressure to win for your country once every 12 years than there is to snag a couple in February in a city you’ve already given up on.
It’s not the spotlight. As Tkachuk pointed out, Matthews is the unmoved mover on this team as well.
Auston Matthews seems to be enjoying himself in Milan, as he speaks here with Team USA head coach Mike Sullivan during practice on Sunday.Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
It’s not history. He’s only played once before in something like this, a year ago, and that didn’t end well for him.
It’s … something else. It’s the people, or it’s the way they talk to him, or it’s the brand of hair product. The Leafs employ a lot of well paid, deep thinkers. So figure it out.
While you could say Matthews should figure it out himself, he’s not. So you either do it for him or you get rid of him. There’s no middle way.
I would get creative about this. Don’t ask the guy what it is unless you’re willing to fly over here and do it. Once he’s back in Toronto, he’ll be Debbie Downer again.
Is it possible he could be taken to other sorts of places in Toronto that are unfamiliar to him, and also find them exotic and inspiring? Has he been on a bus? No, a real bus.
Has he tried driving his own car over the top of the city any time after 4 a.m. and before 2 a.m.? That can inspire intense feelings of oddity and dislocation.
In the general run of things, athletes get to this event and everything tightens. Matthews looks like he’s just walked out of the Paris Metro and seen the Eiffel Tower for the first time. He’s beaming.
If he isn’t still grinning in three weeks time, that won’t be Sidney Crosby’s fault, or talk radio’s fault, or the cold’s fault. That’ll be the Toronto Maple Leafs’ fault.