Ready for the responsibility

Matthews a captain for these times, having grown into role over eight years in hockey-mad city

- ROSIE DIMANNO

When two darling little boys walked into the room wearing Auston Matthews jerseys, I thought: Golly, No. 34 really does have something epochal to impart. The big reveal-he's a daddy twice over.

Nah, those were the spawn of John Tavares. And a sweet gesture it was, to have the wee lads rocking Matthews on their backs. A small unscripted detail in what was a masterfully choreographed occasion. Because the Maple Leafs do grandiose exceedingly well. Even if maybe introducing their new captain, in the company of their gracious old captain, wasn't quite the knock-'em-dead crescendo as so dramatically presented.

I mean, it isn't as if the investiture C is tantamount to placing St. Edward's Crown, last seen during the coronation of King Charles III, on Matthews' head, with GM Brad Treliving as the archbishop of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.

But with scores of journalists assembled in a downtown restaurant-cum-court, in the presence of two former Leafs captains, Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark, and in front of his beaming parents, Matthews' succession was wrung for all its showtime stagecraft.

You know, most teams just put out a press release.

The folderol gave the 26-year-old Matthews a taste of what's in store, as he becomes, as the 26th in the annals of Leaf captains, the formal face of the franchise as well as the lodestar of the team, which he has been for the past eight years.