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Auston Matthews (center) had a stunning NHL debut. USATSI

Auston Matthews, the first player taken in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, wasted little time in introducing himself to the league in his debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs Wednesday night. In fact, he put the entire league on notice by becoming the first player in the league's history to score four goals in his NHL debut.

He needed a little less than two minutes of ice time to get things going and the first shot on goal of his career ended up in the back of the net.

It came after Matthews missed on his first attempt. As he went to take a shot, his stick got checked, but he stayed with the play. He dished the puck off to line mate and fellow rookie William Nylander, whose shot hit the outside of the net. Then Zach Hyman picked up the loose puck and sent it back to the slot. Matthews was open and he made it count.

That's about as well as you could hope to start your first NHL game, right? Nope. It can get better, apparently.

How about scoring a goal that should be on every end-of-season highlight reel? Is that any good?

After the Maple Leafs watched their 1-0 lead transform into a two-goal deficit over a span of just over two minutes in the middle portion of the season, Toronto's rookie sensation took matters into his own hands and took on every Senator between him in the net.

First, he took the puck away from Mark Stone, then he slipped it through Mike Hoffman, steered himself away from Kyle Turris, shook off a check from Hoffman and briefly lost the puck. That looked like it would be the end of it when two-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson collected the loose puck, but Matthews was undeterred.

The 19-year-old stick-checked Karlsson, stripping him of the puck and then sped in on Sens goalie Craig Anderson. Defenseman Marc Methot cut down Matthews' path to the middle of the ice by laying out, but the Arizona native slipped a quick shot through the Senators' netminder to tie the game and send Maple Leafs nation into hysterics.

Surely, there's no way it could get better. This kind of thing doesn't happen all the time. After all:

But did it ever get better.

On only the third shot he has ever taken in the NHL, Matthews completed his hat trick to give the Maple Leafs a 3-2 lead just 1:25 into the second period.

But then he just started getting greedy. With just three seconds to play in the second period, he did this.

Only four players had ever scored three goals in their NHL debut in the modern era, per NHL communications. None have ever made it to four in the modern era before Wednesday night.

A start like that isn't going to do anything to temper expectations, now is it?