Maple Leafs' Auston Matthews gets brutal Ben Simmons comparison for not shooting with Team USA

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Auston Matthews may end his hockey career as the greatest goal scorer ever born in the United States.

During Sunday's Olympic gold medal game, though, he decided not to shoot.

Matthews had a good look with no one in front of him. The Toronto Maple Leafs and U.S. captain chose to be unselfish, though.

He saw a chance to funnel a puck in front of the net for what he hoped was a tap-in.

The pass didn't work, though, and instead it looked regrettable that Matthews didn't shoot the puck.

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It quickly led to memes on social media comparing Matthews to Ben Simmons.

Simmons was the Philadelphia 76ers phenom who could do pretty much everything on a basketball court but pretty much stopped shooting, including in one quite famous meme-level scenario.

Auston Matthews Ben Simmons
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Not shooting it in close pic.twitter.com/FgamICZmRd

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 22, 2026

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Matthews has been all over the ice early in the gold medal game, including defensively.

And you can bet if he gets another chance like this, he won't pass it up.

Team USA is shooting for gold, and Matthews needs to take his chances.

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