Auston Matthews thrives with 72% offensive zone starts under Jim Hiller

Jim Hiller is pointing Auston Matthews at the offensive zone again, and he has 10 points in his last five games to show for it.

The deployment numbers making the rounds this week explain a lot. A breakdown posted on X has Matthews starting 72% of his offensive and defensive zone shifts in the attacking end under Hiller.

Compare that to the previous two seasons, when the same breakdown pegs the split at 55/45. One of the league's purest shooters spent nearly half his starts below his own hash marks.

Picture a restaurant that hires a star chef, then sends him to the dish pit every other night. The food gets worse and nobody upstairs can explain why.

The split ran close to 70/30 before that, so Hiller didn't invent anything. He went back to a blueprint that already worked, and he did it from the first puck drop of his tenure.

The early returns were slow. Matthews was held scoreless in the season-opening 3-2 loss to Montreal, and everything since has come in one five-game burst.

That burst includes a game-winner and three power play points. Saturday's 6-3 win in Colorado pushed Toronto to 3-2-1, fourth in the division heading into Tuesday's road date in Utah.

Tavares absence puts Hiller's Matthews plan under pressure in Utah

Here's the blunt part. Parking a $13,250,000 cap hit, the eighth-highest in the NHL, in the defensive zone for two full seasons was a bad idea, and the stats sheet said so.

Now comes the complication. John Tavares is day-to-day for personal reasons and isn't expected back until at least October 13, which leaves his status for Tuesday unclear.

Somebody has to eat the ugly starts when a veteran forward is missing from the lineup. Does Hiller protect his top six formula, or does the star start pulling defensive draws again out of necessity?

Utah won't make that call easy. The Mammoth sit first in their division at 4-2-0 and have outscored opponents 22-15, with Karel Vejmelka sporting a .907 SV% and one shutout.

Toronto's own crease hasn't been airtight. The Leafs have allowed 18 goals in six games, with Sergei Bobrovsky at .907 and Anthony Stolarz at .904.

The supporting cast is chipping in. William Nylander leads the team with 11 points, Easton Cowan already owns two game-winning goals, and 18-year-old Gavin McKenna has four points.

But the whole thing tilts on No. 34. Andre Tourigny gets last change at home Tuesday, and he'll know exactly which end of the ice Toronto wants its best player starting in.

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