Can Auston Matthews deliver at Olympics despite his history?

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The puck was on Auston Matthews stick. In scoring position. In overtime.

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In the championship game of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament last February.

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The puck was on his stick, from the kind of place he would normally score. With half a net to shoot at. And a tournament to win.

Just a few minutes later, his Maple Leafs linemate of the moment, Mitch Marner, found Connor McDavid open in the high slot and the great McDavid scored the tournament winner.

What wasn’t mentioned a whole lot when all of Canada was celebrating was that Matthews defensively was responsible for McDavid in that overtime circumstance.

Could have scored the winner. Could have prevented the winning goal. This has been Matthews’ big-game mantra of sorts in his decade with the Maple Leafs and in his brief forays as captain of Team USA.

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Since he entered the NHL in 2016, no player has scored more regular-season goals. He has 427, even as his goal scoring has slowed down the past two seasons.

He has 427 goals in fewer games played than McDavid has with 379 or Alex Ovechkin at 394 or Leon Draisaitl with 407.

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Most goals in all of hockey. It’s an incredible number, really. Until the playoffs.

In the post-season, he’s tied for 32nd with teammate William Nylander and three others including Artturi Lehkonen of the Colorado Avalanche. Matthews averages 26 goals a season more than Lekhonen. Regular-season goals.

In six Game 7s as a Maple Leaf and one clinching Game 5 — the kind of games you play in Olympic playoffs — all of them losses for the Leafs, Matthews has not scored a goal. Not once.

And now the stage gets larger, or certainly more extended than he ever has known before. He is captain of Team USA again, a choice that could have been questioned more than it was, but the Americans are counting on a big performance from the Leafs captain at the Milano-Cortina Olympics.

Who will be on Matthews’ line?

Coach Mike Sullivan has placed his highest scoring right winger, Matt Boldy, to start on a line with Matthews and the historically terrific big-game player, Jake Guentzel — 41 post-season goals in 74 games — on his left wing.

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On paper, the line is fabulous. But Matthews and paper, that’s a question of much interest.

This is a new place for Matthews as a face of America in a country that tends not to watch much hockey. The hockey fans in America are rabid, knowledgeable and will be entrenched with everything Team USA as the Olympic hockey tournament begins on Thursday.

But the majority of America, which normally ignores the NHL, would be more familiar with Dave Matthews than Auston Matthews.

The Matthews story, though — the story of the unlikely kid from Arizona who became a hockey giant — is the kind that Americans relish. He and his teammates suddenly will be introduced to an entire audience of Olympic followers who have never spent a moment thinking about the Maple Leafs woes.

This is when America — in the big picture — tunes in to hockey and cares about its players and about a team that realistically should have a shot at gold in this most-anticipated Olympics in years. That’s not an unreal expectation.

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Matthews is now captain country. Every game available on NBC. His name in a different kind of lights than he has known before.

This is the first Games for Matthews and all his American teammates, and just about every player in hockey tournament Olympic. The wait to get here has been long. The players pushed hard, as a group, to get this done.

This is the first Games for McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon and the greatest of Canadian players. The first Games for Nylander and David Pastrnak and Draisaitl and so many of the gigantic stars of the NHL.

The excitement level going into the tournament, just among the players, is really at an all-time high.

And how will Matthews respond to all that?

Can he finally be great when it matters most? Can he be a difference-maker? Can he lead the Americans to their first gold medal since the Miracle on Ice of 1980?

How does this American team compare?

This is the greatest collection of American hockey players ever assembled. These are giants when compared with the talent on the storied U.S. Olympic team of 1980, or even giants when compared to the World Cup-winning team in 1996 or the silver-medal teams from Salt Lake City or Vancouver.

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How deep are these Americans? They have three goaltenders better than any Canadian goalie. They have three pairs of defence who would be better in any combination than seven of the eight Canadian defencemen.

They may not have a McDavid, a MacKinnon, a Sidney Crosby or a Macklin Celebrini up front, but they are deep and strong enough to have the bruising Buffalo scorer Tage Thompson on their third line, strong enough and deep enough to have the partially injured Jack Hughes on their fourth line,

With Matthews wearing the ‘C’ and expected to lead. Sidney Crosby, who has won everything, sometimes more than twice, captains Team Canada. Gabriel Landeskog, famed leader and Stanley Cup champion, is the captain of Team Sweden.

Matthews, who hasn’t won anything as a pro, is now in that kind of company on this brand and widely exposed stage.

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U.S. general manager Bill Guerin didn’t have to go back to Matthews as captain for the Olympics, but he chose to. He has natural leaders in Jack Eichel and the Tkachuk brothers and Quinn Hughes, but he rolled the dice on Matthews again.

He believes this is his time.

Matthews didn’t score a goal in the 4 Nations tournament. He has four goals in his past 21 Stanley Cup playoff games. He has a clinching-game history he would rather forget.

Scoring, aside from strong defensive play, aside from sharp stick work, is what Matthews does best.

But on this stage, who knows? Team USA is betting on him. The odds for that would not necessarily be in their favour.

ssimmons@postmedia.com

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