The tides are always turning, and such was the case for the Toronto Maple Leafs yesterday. After a promising beginning that had the Senators really looking like they were completely out of their league in the matchup, the Leafs finally showed us some of their weak spots yesterday. In what could have been their victory run and a 4-1 series finish, the Leafs ended up losing 4-0 to the Senators, and yes, Auston Matthews did break another stick, this time his own.

One might wonder why he feels the need to channel his rage towards the presumably expensive piece of sports equipment, but if you watched yesterday’s game, it’d be clear why Auston Matthews wasn’t too happy with himself or his stick, for that matter. Lots of things went wrong, which is saying little.

To start with, Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk scored open netters, all while Auston Matthews was on the ice! Further, Matthews made two critical mistakes over the course of the game that he even admitted to in the postgame interview, saying of the bad pass (one of the two blunders), “That’s on me, I have to make a better play.” 

But what exactly did Matthews do? And was it really worth the stick breaking?

Well, to put it simply, yes. It seemed some stick breaking was warranted. Auston Matthews not only accidentally screened Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz, obstructing his view of the puck and enabling Thomas Chabot to score the opening goal, but he also made a bad pass in the third period power play, where a shot aimed at Marner was picked up by Adam Gaudette, who then passed it to Dylan Cozens, who in turn managed to slip it in the net, making the score 2-0!

Fans, of course, had some thoughts about the whole situation, and the now viral video of Matthews breaking yet another stick (the first stick break went down pretty well, actually) is not sitting too well.

Fans react to Auston Matthews’ stick break after Maple Leafs lose to the Senators

Some fans stated the obvious frustration all Leafs fans must be feeling after that game: “When scorers just don’t score in the playoffs!”The sad truth is, that apart from having finished the regular season with 33 goals and 45 assists, Auston Matthews has only scored 1 goal in the five games of this current playoff series!

Another fan took out their frustration on Stolarz, who unfortunately let 2 pucks into the net. “I thought Stolarz was the goal tender the leafs need to get them to the next level, but nah, doesn’t matter, Toronto is the “no fun bunch” and that’s going to translate to another year wondering, “what happened” ?” Stolarz had a remarkable display in the third period of game 2, but since then and a bout of minor injuries in game 3, things haven’t been looking too great on that end.

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Another fan seemed to take the loss really personally, writing, “Big baby you take that stick. You are the reason why I didn’t score. You suck” A bit impassioned, but it’s true, two crucial mistakes made by Matthews led to two crucial goals for the Senators, so…er…there’s that.

Yet another fan commented on the childish nature of the act itself, begging the question of stick breaking: is it really that necessary, productive, or sending the right message? “Grown ass millionaire breaking his stick, wonder where the kids get it. Yep it’s the stick….lol”

And finally, one fan summed up the entire trajectory of Matthews’ stick breaking antics from the start of the series, when Auston Matthews broke Ridly Grieg’s to now. “let the meltdown begin” they wrote, humorously hinting at the possibility that there might be more sticks to break if the Leafs somehow bottle this first round (again)!