Auston Matthews vs Scott Sabourin Is The Best Rivalry In The NHL. Change My Mind
It was just a couple of weeks ago when Auston Matthews broke out the “who are you?” chirp on Scott Sabourin in some NHL preseason action. It was a valid question considering most people probably have never heard of Scott Sabourin before. He is a 27-year-old career AHLer who won a Calder Cup with the Manchester Monarchs in 2015, but never played a game in the NHL until tonight. Meanwhile, Auston Matthews is one of the household names in the NHL.
But Scott Sabourin wasn’t going to just let Auston Matthews get away with this chirp. He’s fighting for all the little guys out there who are just scraping and fighting away to try to make a name for themselves. He knows that he’s not on the same level as Auston Matthews but he’s going to play just as hard anyway, if not harder. So in the opening game of the 2019-20 season, it’s Sabourin vs Matthews again. And this time, Sabourin draws first blood.
27-years-old making his NHL debut and he lights the lamp. What a moment for this grinder and legendary work by the Sportsnet crew to immediately put the camera on Auston Matthews after the goal. It’s a goal that Sabourin will never forget and maybe after hearing the name called out over the PA system of Scotiabank Arena, Auston Matthews will finally learn that name.
HOWEVA…
Matthews wasn’t just going to sit there and take it. This is a rivalry, after all, and it wouldn’t be much of a rivalry if it was just one sided. So just 2 minutes later, Auston Matthews got himself on the board for the first time of the 2019-20 season.
And as if that wasn’t enough, he followed it up with another goal later in the period to now give him 9 goals in the 4 season opener games he’s played in his career so far.
4 goals in the season opener against Ottawa his rookie year (nottabigdeal). A goal and 2 assists in the 2017-18 season opener against Winnipeg. 2 goals in last year’s season opener against Montreal. And now he has 2 goals at the 2nd intermission tonight against Ottawa again. Nobody loves to come firing out of the gates quite like Pablo. But there’s still 20 more minutes for Scott Sabourin to get the last laugh here. All I’m saying is that Sabourin might not be on an NHL roster for 82 games this season but he NEEDS to be in the lineup anytime that Ottawa plays against Toronto. This rivalry is too good to take any games off.
Sidenote: I keep forgetting that Willy Nylander switched his sweater number to 88 this year and every time I see him on the ice I’m more convinced that he’s going to win the Art Ross because of it.
Sidenote #2: Sorry, Frankie.