Game 7 will always be more important than any of the other games, simply by nature of the pressure that is winner-takes-all. But Gilmour's wrap-around was in game 1 and it's one of the all-time Leafs heroic moments. Marner doesn't have that sort of moment. That playoff game, or better yet, series, where he grabs the team by the scruff of the neck and drags us to a win. That's what the great players do.
Matthews has the game 6 winner against Boston, and has dominated playoff games (here and there) Tavares has the OT winner against the Lightning. Rielly had an absolutely heroic series against Tampa last year, and Nylander has 15 goals in the last 4 years. Marner has had some big moments, but the last time he took over a series was the sophomore year against Boston. He was flinging himself in front of those Chara slapshots and we thought we'd found the best winger in the game. He just hasn't done that since.
They're all varying degrees of disappointing, I had to think way too hard and half-ass the heroic moments because they barely have any (goal count for Nylander, come on). But the thing with Marner is that even when he's had his best moments, like this year's goal or big numbers against Tampa last year, he's been overshadowed. He scored 10 points in 4 games last year, but dried up. Rielly was our best player that series, Matthews was incredible, JT got the overtime glory, and we had 5 players over PPG that series. Marner was great, but the point totals don't match the memories.
In what should be one of the all-time greatest playoff comebacks in NHL history, the 3 goals and OT winner against Columbus in game 4, Marner had 3 secondary assists, while Matthews had the winner and two primary assists. Nylander, Tavares, and Hyman all had a goal and an assist. And now we don't even talk about that game because the lot of them laid a goose egg in game 5.
Where is the game we can point to Marner and say, "he did that for us"? Where is the series where he's been our best player? What has he done to cover himself in glory? That's what the ask is. Unfortunately, he hasn't had that since Boston #1, and has plenty of games or even series where people can point to and say, "he was the problem". He had three games against Montreal to put that series to bed, and all he managed in 78 minutes of ice time was 1 primary assist in the second period of game 5. Corey Perry, Eric Staal, Joel Armia, Alex friggin Galchenyuk, and Kotkaniemi outproduced him in those clutch games, they got the glory and Habs fans never hesitate to remind us. And what's worse is that watching him those games it was obvious that he was unplayable. He was our worst player on the ice each and every night. Nylander and Matthews didn't do shit either, but they weren't complete disasters every time they were on the ice.
To heck with point totals, what matters in the playoffs is glory, and Kasperi Kapanen has more playoff glory than Marner.
I'm with you on that. This reminds me of the "should we throw more waffles" thread after salute gate.
If BET99FANDUELMONEYPLZMGMCASINOOOOOOOOOOOO NHL lets me, I'd bet on there being waffles on the ice this year. Whether we boo Marner or not, the fanbase is deeply upset about the general state of the team.
People like to point out that this place is only a tiny minority of the fanbase, and while that's true, this is still somewhat indicative as a sample size. Reddit is a bigger sample and huge numbers of them are furious and fed up as well. The media gives people what they want, and they are pumping out endless Marner schlock because the fanbase is gobbling it up. This place used to be way more positive about Marner and the team, and Reddit used to jump down your throat if you breathed a negative word. Now the numbers have shifted completely; here it's a fairly small cadre of posters who defend Marner.