Auston Matthews finally held without a shot for the 1st time in 104 career games

The Toronto Maple Leafs bested the Calgary Flames, 4-1, Tuesday night. While the win was the Maple Leafs’ seventh in their last 10 games, Toronto did so without a key contribution from their young star, Auston Matthews.

In the 103 games leading up to Tuesday, Matthews had put up at least one shot on goal in every Maple Leafs game he played in. Though Matthews had an assist in Toronto’s game on Tuesday, Matthews was held without a shot on goal for the first time in his career.

Technically, Matthews missed taking shots in the handful of games he was absent in earlier this month due to injury. However, Tuesday marked the 104th regular season game in Matthews’ career, and the 109th if you include the playoffs, putting him in a class of his own with the streak.

It’s a pace that, some say, is an NHL record for the longest shot streak to start a career in league history. Putting up at least a shot in more than 100 games straight is quite a feat, and one that even the NHL’s biggest names haven’t touched. Sidney Crosby had a shot in his first 39 career games, before losing it in the 40th game. Alex Ovechkin’s mark stopped at 21 games, while Connor McDavid was blanked in his fourth career NHL game.

Even the great Wayne Gretzky was held to no shots in his first NHL game.

Matthews, ever the quotable hockey player, was unconcerned about the loss of the streak in the Maple Leafs’ postgame scrum.

In his sophomore season, we’re already getting another taste of how good of a shot Matthews is. In 22 games played this year, Matthews has 24 points on 72 shots recorded. Not a bad way to start a hockey career.