Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner manage to accomplish something no two Maple Leafs teammates have done in 33 years during Thursday’s loss to Carolina.

During the Maple Leafs’ 6-3 loss to the Hurricanes on Thursday, the top line of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Matthew Knies was flat out dominated by Jordan Staal’s line, giving up a hat-trick to Staal himself.

Let's Take a Moment to Celebrate Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner's Budding Friendship - Sharp Magazine

It was such a disaster that head coach Craig Berube eventually swapped Marner for William Nylander, but it was too late to for any noticeable changes to occur.

Following the game, Matthews admitted that the Leafs were outmatched throughout the game and that his line was not in sync defensively.

“Yeah, just a couple breakdowns. I mean, they capitalized on some of their chances and just gained momentum on their side. And obviously, didn’t do a very good job of keeping the puck out of our net in [key times in] the game,” said Matthews. “I thought we had good sequences of the game. And then, you know, just like I said, little breakdowns, little poor execution that they obviously capitalized.”

 

Just how bad was it for Matthews and Marner? Last night, they became the first Leafs to both finish a with a -6 plus/minus rating since 1991 when Daniel Marois & Mike Bullard finished with a -6 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

To make matters worse, when Knies’ minus-5 rating is added to the combined minus-12 of Matthews and Marner, the trio became the first line with a minus-17 rating since 2003 when the Atlanta Thrashers line of Dany Heatley, Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrik Stefan had the same rating against the Ottawa Senators.

 

Statistically, it might have been the worst game of the season for the trio, coupled with the fact that Morgan Rielly was minus-3 and Chris Tanev was a minus-2, the Leafs’ starting five was absolutely disastrous on Thursday.

It came as a bit of a surprise when Craig Berube didn’t specifically call them out the same way he did in December.

The trio will look to bounce back on Saturday when the Leafs welcome the Vancouver Canucks to town for their Indigenous Heritage game.