These kinds of stupid hot takes were made about Kessel. He went on to not only win 2 cups, but he was screwed out of the Conn Smythe the first year. Not at all a passenger on that team.
Will you guys ever learn from past mistakes?
Marner and Matthews haven't scored. They are also absolutely dominant while on the ice and haven't given up a goal yet.
Why not? Because the entirety of Montreal's strategy is "don't let 34 and 16 score".
And yet, just last night Matthews created 3 superb scoring plays for Marner and Nylander.
How quickly people forget about the loss of the depth up the middle. Add Tavares in and this team instantly has 2 dangerous scoring lines - meaning that Montreal has to split up their defensive efforts.
It is what it is - they haven't scored enough (for a variety of reasons), Marner is trying too hard and therefore screwing up the most basic plays, Matthews hasn't had many good shots to take the whole series.
The rest of the team has been good and terrible at the same time.
It's not the first line with horrific giveaways leading to OT winners.
It's not the first line with 3 straight delay of game penalties.
It's almost never the first line hemmed in their own zone.
In fact, Keefe has started putting the top line in for defensive draws just to ensure that we can break out into the offensive zone.
Such doom and gloom.
" I'm never watching again" - some guy who watches every game.
You guys sound like my children.
This is such a bad take lol.
First of all, Mitch Marner has two delay of game penalties alone in this series. One of them was on the penalty kill mind you, but what other "elite" players have done that fot their team so far in the playoffs?
Secondly, your Kessel comparison is a head scratcher. There is no lesson to be learned from Kessel. Phil was shipped out of town and went to play with elite players in Crosby, Malkin and Letang, who had already won Stanley Cups. He got to be a support player on that team, rather than "the guy" and he thrived in an environment where the pressure wasn't on him. That has nothing to do with Matthews and Marner, unless your suggestion is that Toronto needs to add prime Crosby and Malkin, so that 34 and 16 can become support players to take the pressure off them?
Next you go to the loss of center depth with Tavares being out. Need I remind you that despite thr loss of Tavares, the Nylander-Galchenyuk-Kerfoot line has been the most productive Leafs line in the series? So there, again, your point falls apart. That line has played plenty well enough and produced well enough, for Toronto to win the series. As has Spezza's line, which has chipped in as well. It rests on the top line, playing 25-30 minutes per night, doing absolutely nothing of note, offensively.
Finally, this notion that 34-16-11 aren't scoring because they're being targeted, is laughable. You don't think Florida's goal was to shut down the Kucherov line? You don't think Washington and New York's goal was / is to shut down the Perfection line? You don't think people game plan to shutdown the Mackinnon line?... They do. Guess what? They score anyways because they're simply better than the guys trying to shut them down.
You're talking about people acting like your children, but yours is one of the childish takes I've read yet.
