As captain of Team USA, Auston Matthews expects he’ll be seen, but not heard in the 4 Nations Face-off.
Let’s just say it won’t take any speeches from the current Maple Leafs skipper to rev up a talented team of fellow red, white and blue stars in the first best-on-best hockey tournament in almost a decade.
“I don’t need to step in and be a rah-rah guy,” Matthews said Friday in a conference call after he was named captain the previous day, to be assisted by Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers and Charlie McAvoy of the Boston Bruins. “A lot of these guys I’ve played with in junior and other tournaments. There’s good familiarity.
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“A lot of them have been captains and assistant captains.”
Matthews sees part of his role as to “support and encourage,” but a player such as Tkachuk already is a Stanley Cup champion and brother Brady virtually launches himself out of the Ottawa Senators dressing room every night to enliven his club.
There also are three established goaltenders in Connor Hellebuyck, Jeremy Swayman and Jake Oettinger to build team confidence.
“I have to be who I am,” Matthews added of his lead-by-example mode in the first year wearing the ‘C’ for Toronto. “There might be little things here and there, but you learn a lot from a guy such as (previous Leafs captain) John Tavares. He’s someone I’ve leaned on.
“The honour (to rep the Americans) is not lost on me. There are other leaders here. It’s pretty special.”
Defending Rocket Richard Trophy winner Matthews and a number of American, Canadian and European stars missed two Olympic cycles when the NHL refused to go to Asia. The 4 Nations with Sweden and Finland sets the table for a return to the Games next year in Italy.
“It’s been a while,” Matthews said. “I think I speak for a lot of players that everyone hoped this would come to fruition.”
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