Grading Auston Matthews And Mitch Marner's Nutcracker Debut

Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner made their debut in the National Ballet of Canada’s rendition of The Nutcracker last night. Pretty solid showing from the boys, who were dressed as Cannon Dolls.

Growing up my class would basically go see the Nutcracker every year. We had a girl in our class who was always in the one in Boston or at the old North Shore Theater, so we were basically forced to go see the Nutcracker every year. Did I care? Hell no. Field trips were the best when you were in school as a kid. Little did I know it would pay off down the line helping me critique Auston Matthews and Mitch Marners recent Nutcracker performance with the National Ballet of Canada.

So as a self-proclaimed certified Nutcracker expert, I’m going to have the give the guys a B+. While I’m sure I’ll hear it from people in Toronto…”they were perfect, give them an A+” I can’t just be dishing out A+’s left and right here. The performance was good, real good. But it wasn’t perfect.

Frankly, I thought Mitch Marner was just about perfect (I’m sure his dad thought that too). Acting was spot on and kept a game face the whole time. Auston Matthews gave an A+ air guitar performance, but didn’t have his game face on. Got to keep the smiles to a minimum when you are on stage performing.

Overall, a B+ is a damn good performance and not a bad little chiclets bump for Matthews…..National Ballet of Canada? Notttaaa biggggg deallllll. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, I know a couple podcast hosts that would look great in the Nutcracker….let’s make it happen.