Matthews will ‘be myself’ as U.S. captain for 4 Nations

The plan for Auston Matthews is to be, well, Auston Matthews.

On Thursday, Matthews was named the captain of Team USA for the 4 Nations Face-Off, the international best-on-best tournament that will pit the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Finland against each other in Montreal and Boston from Feb. 12-20.

Which means that six months after being named captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Matthews is taking on a new leadership role, with a greater understanding of what it takes to lead.

“Just be myself every day and be who I am,” Matthews said of what he’s learned since becoming captain in Toronto. “I think that’s why I’ve gotten to where I am and why I’ve been chosen to be the captain. For myself, I don’t think the approach or anything is really different.”

Be who he is. And not who he is not.

“I don’t need to step in there and be this rah-rah guy that maybe I’m not,” Matthews said. “That’s not really my style. I think I’m just going to approach it the same way I would approach it here and be myself and support guys, encourage guys, just try to be the best that I can be out there as well.”

The U.S. has a team full of experienced leaders, with four players who are captains on their NHL teams and 10 who are alternates. From that group, Matthews emerged, with Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk and Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy as the alternates; each are alternate captains on their NHL team.

For Matthews’ first three seasons in the NHL, the Maple Leafs had no captain; John Tavares was named for the 2019-20 season and served for five seasons before he was replaced by Matthews in August.

“Obviously Johnny, him being the captain of the team for the last several years and the experience he had playing in Long Island (for the New York Islanders), being the captain there, a guy that I really lean on and others as well that I’ve played with throughout my career in Toronto,” Matthews said. “For myself, it’s just kind of leaning on those guys.

“There’s a lot of guys on this team here, on Team USA, that are captains, assistant captains on their respective teams. So I think it’s kind of a collective effort.”

Part of his focus initially will be on building chemistry with players that have some familiarity with each other, having played together on previous iterations of U.S. teams or on NHL clubs, but who have never competed with this exact composition.

“It’s just important to build that chemistry, come together as a team,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy. Each team’s got some special players and it’s going to be highly competitive. I think everybody has a lot of honor representing their countries as well. I think everybody’s looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity this presents.”

That goes double for him, as he takes on the leadership role, as he tries to simply be himself, be the best player and the best teammate he can, in addition to being the best leader.

“It’s a huge honor,” Matthews said. “Just to be able to represent your country is pretty special, but to have the honor of wearing the ‘C,’ it’s exciting. It’s definitely not lost on me the amount of leaders that are already on this team, guys that maybe wear letters for their respective clubs. But it’s definitely something that is not taken for granted. It’s pretty special.”

For Matthews, it has been almost nine years since he last represented the U.S., at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship and again at the World Championship that same year. In the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, he was on Team North America, which was made up of players 23-and-under from the United States and Canada.

He is more than ready to return to best on best.

“I think I speak for a lot of guys, everybody’s been hoping that this would come into fruition,” Matthews said. “Obviously we’ve missed on a couple of the Olympics already, which is unfortunate. But representing your country is obviously very special. Being able to play in the World Cup, little bit of a different format, but still sort of best on best. But it’s been a while.

“It’s something that the players have been craving and looking forward to. And I think the fans as well. I think it’s going to be great for the game.”