Gary Nylund
Registered User
- Oct 10, 2013
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- 25,141
Nylander has spent most of his career not playing with Matthews so this makes no sense.Marner is a superstar. Marner with Tavares is as good as Nylander is with Matthews. Think about that.
Nylander is horrible with Tavares and only produces with Matthews.
I'm all for Marner making good decisions, I was just making the point that Marner getting shots on net shouldn't be a goal in itself.I'm with ACC on this one. One of the things that we've criticized Marner on over the years is that he's too predictable, goalies can cheat because they know he's going to pass rather than rip one over their shoulder.
His shot isn't going to beat a goalie clean from the top of the faceoff circle, muffin is a fair enough adjective but he is an NHL'er who can pick his spots and is a ~30 goal player (been over 15% shooter the last three years). In the playoffs he'll usually just fling it at the net to get it off his stick before someone pressures him, but I do think he made good decisions to shoot on most of his shots last night. I remember one moment, perhaps in the first, where he was coming off the wing and rather than try a low percentage pass to Knies, who was coming in late and far away, he just ripped it high short side from the bottom of the faceoff circle. Montembault was clearly surprised by it, but was in position and made a good save with the shoulder, and it was actually one of our better chances on the evening. IMO, shooting there was the "correct" decision to make with the puck, and is the sort of play where we're used to Marner trying to make the fancy pass. I recall being genuinely surprised and quite pleased that he'd chosen to shoot. As always, credit where it's due.
I should also add that I have rarely (perhaps even never) been critical of anything Marner does during the regular season, and I'm not criticizing him now. My only issue with him is how he seems to get smaller and smaller in the playoffs as the games get bigger and bigger. Ideally someone with his cap hit should be someone we can count on to lead the way in the biggest games, simple as that and I'm not the least bit worried about how he plays from October to March.
Like I said above, Marner getting shots on net shouldn't be a goal in itself.who is saying - Team Marner or possible/likely members of his family
what they are saying - that it would be nice to see Mitch Marner get the puck on net more often