Auston Matthews is putting in summer work in Arizona, and new Maple Leafs coach Jim Hiller inherits a team searching for real answers.
The photos surfaced this week from chiropractor Shawn Robek in Scottsdale, where Matthews has become a regular during the off-season grind.
Robek works with athletes managing back issues, and Matthews has leaned on him through the Arizona heat before dropping the puck on a 84-game season.
Toronto needs him at full strength. The Maple Leafs closed last season on a seven-game losing streak, going 2-7-1 over their final ten games.
That finish left them at 32-36-14, good for 78 points and a minus-46 goal differential, ranked 28th overall in the league.
Hiller was hired on June 17, taking over a locker room that watched a promising roster completely collapse down the stretch.
Matthews still put up 53 points in 60 games, with five power play goals and three game-winners, even as the losses piled up around him.
Jim Hiller inherits a Maple Leafs locker room in need of answers
He carries the NHL's second-highest cap hit at $13,250,000, trailing only Leon Draisaitl among all skaters in the league.
That number brings its own pressure. Toronto is paying elite money for a center who slumped to six points over his last ten games, with a minus-8 rating in that stretch.
Hiller's first training camp will tell everyone plenty. Does a new voice behind the bench actually fix a system that leaked 299 goals against?
Matthews smiling for a photo in the desert heat means nothing if Toronto opens next season the same way it closed the last one.
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Will Jim Hiller actually fix what's broken with the Maple Leafs next season?
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