BUFFALO — It’s hard to be critical of a player who walks away from his first 60 games of a season with 35 goals and 68 points.



Especially when that player is in the conversation as the world’s best even-strength scorer and, in the two preceding years, walked away with 77 goals and 132 points in 144 games … before his 21st birthday.



But there have been stretches this year (non-insignificant ones) where Auston Matthews hasn’t looked dominant. The points have been there. He’ll curl-and-drag that wrist shot of his every three games and score his fair share of goals.



Matthews likes to score those goals in two ways.



One way is high blocker. On Wednesday, he nearly scored off the rush with that location, narrowly missing his spot far side.



The other is along the ice (something he deserves a lot more credit for because too few players shoot low these days).



On some other nights, those shots go...