Auston Matthews said the Toronto Maple Leafs had "too many passengers" during their Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Matthews was speaking with reporters in the locker room after the Leafs' 6–1 loss when he made the comment. The 27-year old Leafs' star was searching for the right word to describe how the team played when he called his teammates passengers.

The immediate online reaction to this was to point out that Matthews, who finished the series with one goal and three assists, only took two shots in the game.

"I felt like we were ready to play," said Matthews. "I felt like we were in a good mindset. Like I said, I thought the first 10 minutes we didn't, they came out strong. The next 10 minutes I thought we controlled play and then I just through we had too many... passengers throughout the rest of the game and we just weren't on the same page and they get a couple goals and momentum like that and then you're chasing the game and its hard to get it back when you're down three against a good team that plays sound defensively like them."

The Maple Leafs finished the regular season with a 52-26-4 record and the fourth most points in the NHL, but failed to make the conference finals, which they last reached in 2002. Toronto last won the Stanley Cup in 1967 and has not been back since.

Matthews scored a career-low 33 goals this season and at least a few fans burned their jerseys after the team's latest elimination.

More on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Auston Matthews Used a Questionable Word to Describe Teammates After Game 7 Loss.

Test hyperlink for boilerplate