Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews barrelling toward rarely seen 70-goal season

Auston Matthews is on the verge of entering rarefied air in pursuit of 70 goals this season.

Matthews is currently one goal shy of the mark, with his Toronto Maple Leafs having two games remaining on the regular-season schedule. Toronto plays the Florida Panthers on Tuesday and the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, both on the road.

The 70-goal mark has been reached 14 times by eight different players, with three players having reached the threshold multiple times: Wayne Gretzky (four), Brett Hull (three), and Mario Lemieux (two).

“It’s a rare and special occurrence, so it has to obviously be considered among the best seasons in NHL history for scoring goals, that’s for sure,” author and hockey historian Andrew Podnieks said of Matthews’ campaign.

The NHL last had a 70-goal scorer in the 1992-93 season, with Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny each netting 76 goals. Phil Esposito (1970-71) — the first to ever accomplish the feat — Jari Kurri (1984-85) and Bernie Nicholls (1988-89) round out the list of 70-goal men.

Matthews has a chance to become the first American-born player to do it.

Podnieks pointed to the different ways players such as Esposito, Gretzky and Hull scored compared to Matthews. With Esposito, it was his knack for scoring in the slot, with Gretzky it was his craftiness and dekes, and Hull was a force with the one-timer.

Scores in different ways

While others in recent memory, such as Alexander Ovechkin and Steven Stamkos, have used the one-timer to score many goals, they were right-handed shooters.

“What makes Matthews special or different is just the fact that he shoots left and he has perfected the one-timer from the other side,” Podnieks said. “So it’s an adjustment for goalies to have to make.”

While acknowledging the sentiment that today’s players are more skilled, shoot harder and skate faster than those of the past, Podnieks points to the difference in coaching.

“Everybody has a system, everybody has a style,” he said. “You have to be here when the puck is here. You have to do this. You have to do that.

In Matthews’s case, he’s figured a way around that.

“So here comes a guy…