I think you have notation (and/or terms) confused. In simple linear regression
In multiple linear regression, with matrix notation,
The matrix approach isn't here simply to cause confusion: in multiple linear regression the "nice" approach of drawing pictures to represent things breaks down. However, a little linear algebra can be used to describe exactly why the residuals sum to zero, why the different quantities have different degrees of freedom, as well as provide convenient ways to generate tests (there are many theorems that describe the probability distribution of different quadratic forms of multivariate normal distributions: using matrices in multiple regression allow these theorems to be used to develop hypothesis tests.)
On a more basic level: imagine trying to derive the normal equations (to estimate the regression coefficients) by algebra rather than via the matrix approach. It isn't fun.
As one more: example:
The fitted values in multiple regression can be written as
where

is a projection matrix onto the space spanned by the columns of

.
The residuals are
where

is the projection onto the space orthogonal to the column space of

.
Now
or, in short,
just as in linear regression.