It took 12 minutes for Auston Matthews to captivate the hockey world

Hi. You may have heard the NHL returned on Wednesday night.

Oh, you might’ve tried to ignore it. Maybe you watched baseball. Maybe you took our season preview advice and spent your night with your family instead of watching the Senators.

You probably still heard about Auston Matthews anyway.

The first overall pick in the 2016 NHL draft debuted for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday. It was the first NHL game of the year. He basically batted leadoff for the whole league. And he walloped one heck of a leadoff homer.

Here’s everything the 18-year-old from Arizona did on Wednesday to captivate the sports world.

THE GOALS

Remember last season when we had to wait two whole weeks for Connor McDavid to score his first NHL goal? We had to wait all of eight minutes for this year’s first overall pick to cash in

And, okay, it wasn’t that impressive. It was just ... a goal.

His second tally? That wasn’t a goal. It was a statement.

He just made three grown men and one of the best defensemen in the NHL look like high school amateurs. No way he’d top tha—

Wow. Okay. A hat trick in his debut. Only four players had ever done that in the history of the NHL! Officially impressive.

SWEET CHRISTMAS HE SCORED FOUR GOALS IN HIS FIRST GAME AS AN 18-YEAR-OLD

THE MOM

Hockey fans weren’t the only ones losing their collective minds as this unfolded. His parents were in the stands, and his mom’s evolution from excitement to utter pride to CAN’T EVEN HANDLE MY JOY was a sight to behold.

THE PEERS

With just four games on the docket, you knew NHL players across the league would be glued to the games and highly impressed. What you didn’t know is that they had JOKES.

THE REACTIONS

First, look at this.

That is the face of a proud team president. Or a guy who knows his plan to tank last year paid off. Either way.

The Senators won in overtime, by the way. It took five goals to send Matthews home packing. And he was on the ice for the winner. And after all of those historic moments, he was upset at the end.

That is how you make hockey people love you.