I can only say what I’ve heard through heresy but what I was told was that they had a set play drawn up if Matthews won. Nylander was not supposed to pass that puck to McCabe it was supposed to be Nylander wins the puck battle swaps with McCabe and shoots low for a Marner tip or Matthews back door. It was supposed to be a quick play to get the puck on net fast. Matthews was pissed the play didn’t happen as planned so he was going after Nylander. Argument was between Nylander and Matthews. Marner was just sitting in between them. That’s why the story died pretty quickly the next day because a lot of insiders/hockey people were told that Marner really wasn’t involved in the interaction. Again Hersey but that’s what I’ve been told. But I can see how people thought it had to do with Marner.
Also Nylander was mic’d that night. He did not say stop f***ing crying bro. Hahaha the public was way off on that.
The way you describe doesnt make sense though if you watch the game tape.
That play was never available from the faceoff... so there is no way Marner wouldve thrown a hissy fit over a play that wasnt even available. Besides off the faceoff, Mccabe is skating backwards and not towards Nylander and Marner goes to goal line boards not the net off the faceoff.
15 seconds after the faceoff win, Marner went to the net (more less by accident) and he took a light check from behind and collapsed like he was shot. He was certainly complaining to the ref because he stayed on his knees and was looking towards the rw goal line and talking... only the ref was in that corner and the puck was on the opposite side of the ice. So Marner literally had his back on the play.
The play went the other way, in part because Marner took himself out of the play in order to complain to the ref... which Nylander had the perfect viewpoint of.
53 seconds after hes on his knees complaining. Marners shift ends because leafs cover the puck...Marner seeks out the ref and proceeded to complain even more. Literally seconds later when Marner gets to the bench, Nylander said quit crying bro. So we think Marner stopped being mad at the ref he spent an entire shift being mad at and goes to the bench and immediately starts getting mad at Nylander?
Its most likely that Marner was still yelling at the ref from the bench, (he probably was warned by the ref that he would be given a penalty if hr didnt stop) which promped Nylander to say "quit fing crying bro".
This is obviously something the Leaf players wouldnt admit because it would reflect terribly on Marner and media and fans already had pitchforks out for him.