Auston Matthews' New Pre-Game Ritual Demonstrates Just How Much He Misses Mitch Marner

Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner were a dynamic duo for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who many fans thought would be with the franchise forever.

Now, Marner plays for the Las Vegas Golden Knights, while Matthews is entering his second season as captain of the Maple Leafs.

Overall, Matthews has some very real challenges in front of him, especially when you consider how the Maple Leafs have to put a whole new first line together.

So far, in the preseason, Matthews has played two games and has scored two goals. His scoring touch seems to be back, yet his yearning for Marner appears to be on display.

Prior to the game against the Detroit Red Wings last night, Matthews showed off a new pre-game ritual, in which he put his pucks in the shape of a T.

While we don't know the significance of this, we do know that this is not what we typically see from the Toronto Maple Leafs captain.

Without Mitch Marner around for his usual pre-game rituation, the captain is looking to do something completely different, and it does seem as though he is missing his former teammate.

Having said that, we are sure that Auston Matthews will figure things out eventually and will get better at coping with the loss.

When you think about the captain's preseason output, it does seem like he is over whatever injury he had to deal with all of last season.

Whether or not Matthews can make this upward trend last still remains to be seen. With the regular season just five days away, we will soon get our answer.