This makes me happy - I thought they were going to slow-play Steeves. IMO he's the best callup option even ignoring Ho-Sang's contract situation
And while my crush on Steeves is brand new just from watching his impressive skating this year, I've been crushing on Rubins for a few years now for his combo of size mobility and puck handling.
These guys are far from locks to be good nhlers, especially in their first try, but imo they definitely have the tools to be, and were the 2 guys I most wanted to get a look at right now (other than Robertson of course.
The part that makes me angriest about this is that auston very literally plays the right way. He's dominant down low and owns the front of the net. He doesn't dive or embellish contact, he just beasts through it or evades it. If you were creating a training program for kids on how to play along the boards and in front of the net, matthews would be your model. But that gets him zero respect from the zebras somehow
It's fair and Micah isn't defending NHL officiating there, which he makes clear. He's just pointing out that Auston isn't much of an outlier. But yeah, the issue isn't anti Leaf bias as much as the NHL having the worst officiating in sports (by design).
Auston doesn't draw penalties because the Leafs don't take enough penalties themselves. Those two shouldn't be related but they are; very very very strong correlation share across the league each and every year. That's the issue.