Auston Matthews has more goals than eight NHL teams. He has scored in five straight games and is one game shy of tying Sweeney Schriner’s 74-year-old team record for most games at the start of a season with at least one goal. He has four power-play goals, or one less than he had all of last year.

The best player in the NHL? Well, with nine goals and 12 points in five games, he surely has coaching staffs searching for answers on how to stop him and the Leafs’ lethal power play.

Matthews worked on his shot in the off-season, with a focus on his release and being more deceptive. But NHL goalies have seen plenty of great shots. They’ve seen every manner of deception, every quick release, from every angle. Matthews has not reinvented the wheel.

Read more:

Game Centre: Matthews and the Familiar Four lead Leafs over Wings

Opinion | Dave Feschuk: Maple Leafs are leading a welcome offensive resurgence in the NHL

Opinion | Bruce Arthur: Auston Matthews has forced himself into the greatest-player-in-the-world conversation

What he has done is beat goalies where they think they can’t be beaten.

Case in point: the first power-play goal Thursday night. Matthews teed it up, with time to see Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard set up. That meant Howard was not fooled by what was coming. Still, Matthews picked the lower left corner, just over Howard’s goal stick, and under his blocker. Pinpoint precision.

Howard had that angle covered, and only a perfect shot was going to beat him. Howard will take those odds. So will most NHL goalies.

But, for now, Matthrews is beating them with great release skills, and amazing hand-eye coordination, and perfect placement.

SECONDARY SCORING?

The Leafs now have 25 goals in five games, with 20 goals against. At least one of Matthews and John Tavares has been on the ice for all but one of them. The duo has combined for 60 per cent of Toronto’s goals.

And Tavares had a career-high four-assist night in Detroit.

Meanwhile, Nazem Kadri, Patrick Marleau, Zach Hyman, and Jake Gardiner – all key contributors with big ice time – have yet to score.

Does it matter, with the club having won four of its first five games and leading the league in all kinds of scoring stats? Not for the moment.

The balance should be there. Hyman has been important to the overall cause with his wonderful checking and puck retrieval skills. Marleau has been silent, but stellar defensively, and Kadri is partly snake-bitten, hitting posts in each of the last two games.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

But secondary scoring could become a key concern over the next two weeks, with big tests that include Washington, Pittsburgh and Winnipeg (twice).

The Matthews-Tavares-Mitch Marner-Morgan Rielly show is a headline grabber, but no show is complete without a solid supporting cast.

STEADYING FREDDIE

Andersen faced 19 shots in the third period, bailing the Leafs out when they were hanging on to a 4-3 lead and their defence was scrambling all over its zone.

Andersen simply looked solid, even though Wings Thomas Vanek and Dylan Larkin hit the post on consecutive shots at one point.

Andersen, inconsistent over the first four games, definitely stood farther up in his crease, challenging shooters more than the previous games. Good signs.

HANDFUL OF OPTIONS

Every player on the Leafs power-play first unit — Matthews, Tavares, Marner, Kadri, and Rielly — gives the team options for an attack.

Matthews says part of his early-season success is Tavares’s presence.

“Yeah, it does (open up shooting lanes),” Matthews said. “It’s nice because it gives you two options, to shoot it or throw it back to him. He’s got good hands obviously, strong on his stick. If you get the puck back there to him, he’s most likely going to put it in. So, either way, you’ve got some options.”

A RIELLY RECORD

As per NHL Stats: With 12 points in his first five games, Rielly passed Bobby Orr (11 points in 1973) for the most points by a defenceman in the first five games of the season, in the post-expansion era. Marner referred to the blueliner as “Moe Orr” after Thursday’s game.

This is more than just another Leaf crashing through scoring plateaus to start the season. This is the first Norris Trophy-level breakthrough of Rielly’s career.

As much as media, critics, bloggers and everyone else are talking about Matthews, Rielly shared the NHL scoring lead with him. His development will be a fun watch throughout the season.

Read more about: