Matthews shatters pane of glass in first full practice with Maple Leafs

TORONTO — It didn’t take long for Auston Matthews to make an impact, quite literally, at the Toronto Maple Leafs’ training camp.

The prized first overall selection of the Maple Leafs skated with his new teammates for the first time on Wednesday morning after a six-day break following the World Cup of Hockey.

Following the formal portion of practice, Matthews was shooting pucks with teammates when he shattered a pane of glass.

“It was a terrible shot too,” Matthews said. “It wasn’t even hard, just happened to hit the right spot I guess and shattered the whole thing. We were just messing around. It was me (Mitch) Marner, (Andrew) Nielsen, the last guys on the ice, we were just taking shots and (I) missed the net, broke the glass.”

The Maple Leafs first-rounder was asked whether he’d have to pay for the repairs.

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“Yeah probably. Lou (Lamoriello) won’t be too happy,” he joked.

The 19-year-old, who coach Mike Babcock said will start the season as the Leafs’ third-line centre, skated on a line with James van Riemsdyk and Leo Komarov. He also saw power play time alongside Milan Michalek and Dymtro Timashov.

Matthews believes the experience of playing in Toronto during the World Cup of Hockey will help with the transition to the NHL.

“It helps a lot, it makes a difference,” he said. “Just having that (comfort of) playing in front of Toronto fans, getting a chance to play at that rink heading into the pre-season, I think it definitely gives you some confidence.

“My mindset the whole time was go in (to the World Cup) and get better and learning as much as I could. Going into it, I knew I could play at that level.”

Matthews scored two goals and added an assist in three round robin games.

His performance with the under-23 Team North America was punctuated by a highlight-reel deke from his knees around Daniel Sedin where he setup teammate Morgan Rielly for a shot and then finished it off by putting home the rebound for the game’s first goal in a 4-3 overtime win against Sweden.

“He’s a pass-first guy in my opinion, but he’s got a great shot,” Rielly said. “He’s a mature young man. He’s had an opportunity to play pro and with older guys. It’s not like he’s coming right out of junior. The adjustment will be easier for him just ’cause of the environment he was in last year.”

Jim Hiller, who has been handling the coaching duties with Babcock away at the World Cup of Hockey, doesn’t know when Matthews will make his pre-season debut, but was impressed with what he saw from the six-foot-two, 210-pound centre’s first practice.

“I watched the World Cup like everybody else did and so the first time I got to see him play in a game I was really impressed there,” Hiller said. “I thought the practice, the whole practice, he was with the older group, a lot of veterans in that second group. I thought the pace was great, and I thought he did well.”

Toronto continues its pre-season schedule with back-to-back games against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday and Friday.

Notes: G Frederik Andersen (upper body) participated in practice and remains day-to-day. … LW Nikita Soshnikov (lower body) skated on his own on Wednesday. … Nikita Zaitsev, Roman Polak and Jhonas Enroth, who were away at the World Cup of Hockey, also joined the Leafs for practice.

Dhiren Mahiban, The Canadian Press