Is Auston Matthews the favorite for Rocket Richard?

Auston Matthews has stormed back into the Rocket Richard Trophy race.

While Alex Ovechkin and Leon Draisaitl were running away with the NHL’s goal-scoring race lead early on, Matthews is back in the mix with eight goals in his last five games.

Tyler Yarmchuk and Mike McKenna talked on Thursday’s edition of The Daily Faceoff Show about who’s the best bet in this year’s scoring race.

Yaremchuk: “Let’s talk a little bit about goal scoring. The race for the Rocket Richard is starting to get a little bit interesting. The two big guns who have been going for the first few months of the year, Leon Draisaitl and Alex Ovechkin, are slowing down just a little bit.

Draisaitl has just one goal in his last five and Ovi has just two in his last five while Auston Matthews stands there with eight in his last five. He’s still four back of Draisaitl but I’m getting this feeling that maybe Matthews should be the favorite for this award again.

McKenna: “I think it’s a three-man race. The players that you highlighted are right there for me as well.

I look at past history. Alex Ovechkin has been the Richard winner nine times previously and in recent history here, too, 2019-20 was his last time. Ovechkin can continue to fill the net, it’s just what he does. He’s been pretty consistent this year, a little bit of a slowdown, but you never know the next Ovechkin is going to pop off for two or three goals. I think he has a very real possibility.

Draisaitl is interesting to me. He’s hit 50 goals once previously in his career and he has slowed down. He has one goal in his last five games. He, to me, is a long shot at this point because I’m not sure he’s going to get to that level that Matthews has been at previously.

Matthews has won, he’s the reigning Rocket Richard champion. Last year he had 41 goals in 52 games and he’s trending towards that again. Matthews is crushing 5-on-5 and then I watch him snap it around on the power-play with John Tavares and William Nylander, I think Matthews is the horse here.

I wouldn’t count out Ovechkin or Draisaitl, but I would put my money on Matthews right now.

You can watch the full episode here…