Imagine that was your own reputation your entire life. Then woke up and realize not everyone is Mr. Game 7 Justin Williams who I once made a road hockey save on, but to be Nik Borschevsky. Win a series as a winger for many men's. And wake up in obscurity talking about m and ms and who Mitch likes to play with.
I'd call that a night mare Gary.
Don't get distracted by the game 7 nonsense. See the numbers below, consider that in addition to this, Marner continued to be ineffective the one time we got past the 1st round.
To this point in his career, Marner produces at close to a 100 point pace until the first 4 games of the playoffs are in the books, then his production goes down from close to a 100 point pace to close to a 40 point pace.
Games 1-4: 37 pts in 31 gp (
98 point pace over 82 games)
Games 5-7: 8 pts in 17 gp (
39 point pace over 82 games)
These are the facts, and after 8 years, the sample size isn't that small anymore. So why does this happen? Here are 4 possibilities:
1)
Playoff hockey is different from regular season hockey. I think this is accepted by everyone to be a simple truth and perhaps Marner's game just isn't suited to playoff hockey. He puts up points the first few games because players don't flip a switch when the playoffs start, it takes a few games for the players to adjust to a different style of play but once they do, Marner's no longer effective.
2)
It's a mental thing. Marner can't handle the pressure, and folds when the stakes are the highest.
3)
It's just coincidence, and going forward there is no reason to believe that Marner's production will continue to drop off a cliff after 86 games.
4)
Some other reason that I can't think of.
I don't know the answer but as always, I'm open to ideas. I used to think that it's #2, now I'm leaning towards #1 which many others have said is the issue. #3 seems far-fetched but if you have ideas for #4, I'm all ears. But if #1 or #2 is the answer, then a reasonable question seems to be this - for a team that wants to win the cup, how much cap space are you comfortable allocating to a player who goes from a 100 point player to a 40 point player once 86 games are in the books?
Edit - I'd actually say that a combination of 1/2 is the answer. I say that because of the Florida series. Game 3 was huge. Down 2-0 so win and you're right back in it, lose and the season's as good as over so the biggest game of the years IMO and Marner played the worst playoff game of his career and looked like a mediocre Marlie playing his first NHL game, fumbling the puck all over the place. Game 4, down 3-0 it's as good as over, nobody expects anything any more so the pressure is off and Marner looked pretty good in that one. I can't see into his head but it sure seems like his mental game is possibly an issue as well. So mostly #1, but a little bit of #2 as well.
I really hope I'm wrong though and #3 is the answer. Marner sucking for the first 4 games of the playoffs, then waking up, leading us to the finals with a Conn Smythe type performance, now that would be like a dream come true. Hard to see it happening, but I've probably never hoped to be wrong as badly as I'm hoping to be wrong about this one.
