It's sometimes hard to believe that Mike Matheson is in only his second full NHL season.
The 23-year-old defenseman has already tasted the playoffs - suiting up for five games as a rookie during the 2015-16 postseason - and inked an eight-year contract that will keep him on the Florida Panthers blue line throughout the prime of his very promising career.
Q&A: Matheson Searching For Consistency in Second Season with Panthers
Still, like any young defenseman, he's also had to fight through some growing pains.
At the start of the season, Matheson struggled mightily on both defense and offense, recording just one point through his first 13 games while being on the ice for a whopping 22 goals against. In the 17 games since, however, he appears to have turned a corner, recording seven points, including the game-winning goal in overtime in Monday's 2-1 victory in Detroit.
A contributor on both the power play and penalty kill, Matheson is averaging just over 20 minutes of ice time this season, while also leading the team in takeaways (24) and blocked shots per game (1.53).
"They're young guys," coach Bob Boughner said of Matheson's development. "You've got to be able to live with their mistakes and empower them. If they're making mistakes, make sure they're making it trying to do the right thing… There's a lot more good in his game than bad. He's a big talent for us."
Recently, Matheson sat down with FloridaPanthers.com's Jameson Olive to discuss the highs and lows of his sophomore season in South Florida.
OLIVE: How would you evaluate your season thus far?
MATHESON: I would say that I've had some good games and some bad games. It's been definitely a little inconsistent, I'd say. It's been pretty frustrating for myself. I wish I would have started a lot better, but I think I've been continuing to get better as the season's gone on.
OLIVE: How difficult is it to shake off an an early-season slump?
MATHESON: I think it's all part of it. Every single year you'll go through it, where you have some sort of slump or whatever you want to call it where you're not playing the best. For some people it happens at the beginning for the year; for some straight in the middle of the year; for others at the end. It's all part of being a hockey player and being an athlete in any sport. I think it's important to just stay positive and not really over evaluate everything and kind of just relax and know that you're here for a reason and know how to play and just get back to it.
OLIVE: Did you make any changes to your game that have helped?
MATHESON:What's the old saying? If you keep doing the exact same thing and expect something different you're legally insane? I think I'm definitely focusing on trying to be more reliable and be more consistent with the puck and without the puck. Hopefully that ends up turning into better play.
OLIVE: What did the coaches tell you when you were struggling to put up points early on?
MATHESON: Not too much honestly. It's just about staying the course. It's frustrating when the points aren't coming when the team isn't winning. But if the team's winning then it doesn't matter. There's been a couple games where I've had a Grade-A scoring chance at the end of games where it's been a tight game and we haven't ended up winning that game. That's where it starts getting frustrating, when you can do things to help the team win and you don't capitalize. I think that, for myself, it's again just about being calm and staying the course and realizing that there's a reason that I am where I am and things will turn around.
OLIVE: That being said, how nice was it to score your first goal of the season in Detroit?
MATHESON: It's always nice to be able to help out where you can. It's been a while. I've been searching for that first one, so it was nice to get it.
OLIVE: After that goal, you could see the excitement on Jonathan Huberdeau and Nick Bjugstad's face. Not just for the goal, but for you. How much did that goal mean not just for yourself, but for the team as a whole?
MATHESON: I think that the biggest part of it was that we were able to come back from being down one goal early in the game and fight our way back into an overtime period and get a win. Obviously we would have liked to have done the same thing last night, but I think that things are really starting to get back on track for us.
OLIVE: Speaking of last night, you were on the ice when Patrick Kane scored the game-winning goal in overtime for the Blackhawks in Chicago. Given that you had played the role of hero just a little over 24 hours before that, how do you manage those types of highs and lows?
MATHESON: It's all part of it. It's definitely not easy. It's easy to feel really good after being on the right side of an overtime win and then feeling pretty low after being on the wrong side of it. It's important to stay even keeled and stay focused on each game as they come along.
OLIVE: In addition to your own improvement on defense, the Panthers blue line as a whole has really looked much better as of late. After a shaky start, how impressed have you been with the blue line's resurgence?
MATHESON: I think that we definitely started off the year a little rocky, trying to get used to the systems. That's completely natural when you adjust to things like that. But I think over the past few weeks we've really started to hunker down and play a lot stronger defensively. And when I say that, I mean as a whole, not just as defensemen. The forwards are also playing better defense in the defensive zone. I think it's definitely a positive heading into this last stretch leading up until Christmas break.
OLIVE: How difficult was it to lose Roberto Luongo?
MATHESON:He means so much. To be able to learn from a guy like that is amazing. I grew up watching him; he's obviously from Montreal. I've always been a big fan of his and the ability to be on the same team as him for my second year now has just reinforced all the things I just kind of imagined about him. He's such a great pro. He's always the first one at the rink and is so methodical about everything he does every single day so that he performs every single time he steps on the ice. That's something that I definitely really admire in him.
OLIVE: Without Luongo, backup James Reimer has had to step up. How confident are you in him?
MATHESON: You never like seeing your top goaltender go down in Lu, and we definitely miss him, but we have every bit of confidence possible in Reims. It's hard to call him a backup goalie. I'd say he's such a strong presence and we definitely have a lot of confidence in him. He's our guy now and we're happy that he's the one that's coming in.
OLIVE: With points in 8 of the last 11 games, do you think the Panthers have turned a corner?
MATHESON: I think so. I think things are looking good for us. Obviously there's been a lot of games, even during that stretch, that we feel we should have won. But I think all around we've been playing really solid games. Some of the games haven't gone our way, but you hate to make excuses because they really don't lead to anything positive. I think there's something to be excited about when you look at the way we've been playing.
