from Michael Traikos at the Toronto Sun,

The last time we checked, Auston Matthews was still 18 years old.

Judging by the Justin Bieber-inspired wardrobe he was wearing while lounging around his team’s hotel on Friday — tight-fitting pants with intentional rips in the thighs, a loose-fitting T-shirt and shockingly white sneakers — he looks it.

On the ice, however, it seems the American centre's age is ever-changing.

With each passing game here at the world hockey championship, Matthews has seemingly aged a year. He might have looked like a in-over-his-head teenager in a 5-1 loss to Canada in his tournament debut, but after scoring the only goals for the U.S. in a 2-1 overtime shootout win against the Czech Republic on Thursday, teammates were calling him a leader.

“I think it took him a little time to get comfortable in his own skin,” U.S. captain Matt Hendricks said Friday. “He’s playing around some NHL players and maybe he didn’t know that he needed to be The Man. Now he’s realizing that, Hey, I can take this game over. He definitely had an outstanding performance last night and I expect him to continue on and continue to get better and continue to get more confident.”

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