For Toronto Maple Leafs’ fans, Auston Matthews winning the Calder Memorial Trophy at the 2017 NHL Awards was pretty much a no-brainer. The rookie scored 40 goals, and put up a total of 69 points in 82 games to help lead the Leafs back to the postseason for the first time since the 2012-13 season.
Since Matthews was drafted in 2016, the attitude around the Leafs’ organization has taken a 180-degree turn. The change in attitude includes diehard Leafs’ fans, which have expressed their optimism in different ways throughout the year.
When Mike Babcock took over as head coach of the Leafs in 2015, this fan by the name of Andy James Dinner got a tattoo of a now famous quote the coach used in his introductory press conference; “There is pain coming.”
The fan then added the numbers “6-8-5-13” below the quote, which signify the Leafs’ 2016 NHL Draft Lottery numbers.
And the moment Matthews name was called onto the stage to accept his Calder; the fan knew he had to get the trophy tattooed above the quote:
Matthews clearly did Leafs’ fans proud this season, and has them optimistic about the future.
