Mitch Marner Offseason Continued

[pucksakes666]

Time to dump Marner they gave him d drugging he whined for by now , play on a line with Mathews , bumper role on PP and a letter on his jersey . All for this giving him is a goal drought going back 2 years.

 

[ER89]

It does matter.He scored goals against better teams in the playoffs when he was smaller and weaker. Stop with da bullshit

Against weaker matchups. Ever since has had top pairing players go against him, he has been absolute ass.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Nothing.
Here are his comments this year:
Jake Muzzin does not seem happy to have to do this again, and he has a right to his displeasure. He talks about the team needing urgency every night. He says his injury was a groin issue, and he doesn’t expect it to be a problem. He says it happened right on the ice in the video we’ve all seen, and he had not been previously injured.
“We can’t be easy to play against, or we won’t get it done in the playoffs.”

So who exactly needs urgency?
And why are they still here year after year?

Easy to play against - a reoccurring theme. So they try and supplement the soft core with guys like Simmonds, Thornton, Vesey, Foligno and it still doesn't work. Gee let's just get some different non-core players next year to try and make our guys play harder, that'll work!

 

[egd27]

Lmao and what does Keefe do. He doubles down and stacks Nylander with them to play right into the hands of MTL. What's left? The remaining roster that has 0 chemistry together now that the lines are all messed up. This is the decision he makes when it's a tie game and MTL is facing elimination.

Shades of CBJ.

Do or die in Game 5.
Stack JT / AM / MM so Torts has one line to worry about, move a defensively weaker WN to centre for the first time all season on the 2nd , and insert AJ who hadn't played an NHL game in 5 (?) months to the 3rd.

Oh surprise, we got shut out.....but at least Andersen let in a softie and was able to the heat for the loss.

 

[m1ker]

Now the organization encourages and rewards high risk plays

Do you guys remember when Kadri would be benched for doing something other than the basic play?

Galchenyuk makes a risky pass that loses OT and then attempts the same pass in OT the very next game. Tortorella would of tombstoned him on the ice.

 

[Stonehands1990]

Shades of CBJ.

Do or die in Game 5.
Stack JT / AM / MM so Torts has one line to worry about, move a defensively weaker WN to centre for the first time all season on the 2nd , and insert AJ who hadn't played an NHL game in 5 (?) months to the 3rd.

Oh surprise, we got shut out.....but at least Andersen let in a softie and was able to the heat for the loss.

Keefe as an absolutely horrible coach. I can’t see us winning anything with him unless he drastically changes his thinking or we move on

 

[egd27]

Are we sure these guys don't have Keefe by the balls? Glad Marner was adamant about how the not playing a different role on the PP wasn't true, but I honestly don't know. I love Matty don't get me wrong, but I sometimes get diva vibes. Maybe he doesn't want to play with anyone else and Keefe wants to make him happy.

Who knows, regardless Keefe really should have broken them up. People will point to Boston's big line as a reason not to break them up, but after what I just witnessed, 2 11M dollar players being shut down by Denault and A couple of decent/good D my mouth is too sour to run that back.

Boston's big line gets results, and when they occasionally are cold, Cassidy splits them up for a bit.

I think Keefe knows he is in over his head so he just goes with the whatever the GM or players say is best. He wasn't able to override his PP coach and get that working for 30+ games. So if he's afraid of offending Malholtra, lord knows who he'd stand up to.

 

[weems]

Those bad loopy routes to a puck battle and the vigorous stick sweeps after you lose it while carefully avoiding contact and you concede the lane is the kind of play you see when you’re playing roller hockey with friends and nobody wants to fall on the concrete and scrape up their knee.

It’s just not a standard level of buy in and given what has been said about the Leafs going into Game 7, and it gives the other team confidence that they’re basically playing a bunch of pushovers. When this happens every single year, it’s just part of the psychological makeup. That’s the lack of killer instinct.

TB are a team that many say "Well they're a skilled team that wins", ya but they dont take shortcuts and actually impose themselves.

I flipped game 4 on the other night and right away, TB gets in the offensive zone and finished every single check which in total was about 5 in a 30 second sequence.

Watch the next NYI vs BOS game and every player will skate fullspeed into a 50/50 puck battle. Every player will finish their check. Every player that has a chance to drive the puck to the front of the net will do so and not opt for a low % perimeter shot because they might get hit or crosschecked.

This style of play is what wins in the playoffs and has since hockey was invented. If you dont play this way you essentially become very easy to play against and dont wear the opposing team down over 7 games (You can also basically omit injury for the other team also). It's not about going out and grabbing the Simmonds or Foligno's of the world. It's about having a standard that everyone does the necessary things each shift and that means alot of the greasy physically demanding things.

This core plays that way for short stretchs but its definitely not every game and certainly not every shift.

 

[Stephen]

TB are a team that many say "Well they're a skilled team that wins", ya but they dont take shortcuts and actually impose themselves.

I flipped game 4 on the other night and right away, TB gets in the offensive zone and finished every single check which in total was about 5 in a 30 second sequence.

Watch the next NYI vs BOS game and every player will skate fullspeed into a 50/50 puck battle. Every player will finish their check. Every player that has a chance to drive the puck to the front of the net will do so and not opt for a low % perimeter shot because they might get hit or crosschecked.

This style of play is what wins in the playoffs and has since hockey was invented. If you dont play this way you essentially become very easy to play against and dont wear the opposing team down over 7 games (You can also basically omit injury for the other team also). It's not about going out and grabbing the Simmonds or Foligno's of the world. It's about having a standard that everyone does the necessary things each shift and that means alot of the greasy physically demanding things.

This core plays that way for short stretchs but its definitely not every game and certainly not every shift.

One of the key phrases I’ve been watching for all season has been the “championship habits” and then dropping in to check out teams like Vegas, Colorado, Tampa, Carolina, Boston and some of the upstarts like Florida from time to time. Gotta say the Leafs weren’t always consistent and you could tell when the trap games would come and predictable patterns of failure against hard checking teams that played with pace. A lot of our fans talked about load management, meaningless regular season (true but not true as a tune up) whenever these bad habits came up. And when push came to shove they didn’t have it.

We know the DNA of this team is Dr Jekyll Mr Hyde. That’s never changed. Was listening to someone talking about George Armstrong and championship habits. And he said “hockey isn’t a tap you can’t turn on and off.” So true.

 

[Trapper]

Easy to play against - a reoccurring theme. So they try and supplement the soft core with guys like Simmonds, Thornton, Vesey, Foligno and it still doesn't work. Gee let's just get some different non-core players next year to try and make our guys play harder, that'll work!

It’s not enough to just change the GM. Like Boston, we need to set the franchise back to blue, collar, hard working skill.
We need to get back to the core days of Gilmour/Clark.
Pat Burns.
Pat Quinn.

The identity must be the Leafs. Then search for the players that tick the boxes, regular season and playoffs.

 

[egd27]

Against weaker matchups. Ever since has had top pairing players go against him, he has been absolute ass.

Well since the dim GM already gave him the money, maybe the coach could change his deployment so he was facing some weaker match ups and start producing again?

If he's going to be overpaid he may as well be overpaid to produce on the 3rd line (example) instead of not producing on the first. We can find a minimum wager to do that.

see: Kessel, Phil

It's not friggin rocket science, but too complex for our coach to figure out.

 

[Captain Crunch]

Easy to play against - a reoccurring theme. So they try and supplement the soft core with guys like Simmonds, Thornton, Vesey, Foligno and it still doesn't work. Gee let's just get some different non-core players next year to try and make our guys play harder, that'll work!

Exactly! Watching the teams that are still in, and even some that are now out, I see players that give 100% every time they’re out there. They do not do those stupid “fly bys”, and are willing to take a hit to make a play, no matter what. Until Marner and Nylander learn to do this, why in hell would some 3rd or 4th line player be willing to make the sacrifice (but of course they do because they know they won’t be playing if they don’t, unlike our prima donna so-called leaders).
And yes, I know Nylander improved in this area. Hopefully Marner can grow some balls over the off season while he’s lounging by his pool or whatever else he does, and come back willing to do what’s necessary.
This grit and being hard to play against has to come from the top players, not the other way around.

 

[leafsfan5]

Boston's big line gets results, and when they occasionally are cold, Cassidy splits them up for a bit.

I think Keefe knows he is in over his head so he just goes with the whatever the GM or players say is best. He wasn't able to override his PP coach and get that working for 30+ games. So if he's afraid of offending Malholtra, lord knows who he'd stand up to.

Cassidy did exactly what you said against us in 2019 and it worked. His top line was being neutralized by Tavares so he threw Pasta onto line 2 for game 6. That new line of Debrusk-Krejci-Pastrnak scored the game winning goal that day to save their season

Cassidy was willing to change up the best line in hockey when their season was on the line but we kept the status quo for some reason

 

[egd27]

Cassidy was willing to change up the best line in hockey when their season was on the line but we kept the status quo for some reason

I guess Cassidy wasn't afraid of one the 3 players getting mad at him.

 

[myleafs]

Yeah. I will defend a player who many people misdiagnose as a shit player. In the leafs over 100 year history, he is the top 25th in all timecareer leaf scoring at only 24 years old. It is an absurd hot take. You take Marner out and the team still loses. If you think differently, you should be vigorously be defending Keefe and Dubas. I dont. These guys played the style they were told to play. That isnt a small thing. Argue away that they dont have the skill to play the required style but who exactly is being unreasonable here? You dont put diesel in a gas car and then complain that the fuel is shit when the car doesnt run.

The team not being aggressive or standing up for themselves or each other, yes Im starting to believe that might be from the top down but there is no way Keefe and Dubas told Marner to do an epic head shaking flyby in his own end while down a goal.

 

[myleafs]

Which supporting cast do you have a problem with and how much do you propose to spend on their replacements. It's all fine and dandy to say we need better players but who for who? You think getting a bunch of kerfoots on the 3rd and 4th line is going to help the team?

If we had 6 Kerfoots on the bottom 2 lines it would be a hell of a lot better than what we had. Guy has a motor and never stops trying. He gets laid out a lot and bounces up and keeps going so the answer to your question is hell yes.

 

[Gabriel426]

I have zero problem letting Marner play on PP2. Just to remind you, the last time he did that, it became PP1 because it out produced the other unit. It was a bit of a joke when people here were clamoring about putting Matthew's and Nylander on the 1st PP unit.

See, I don't look at PP1 and PP2, I look at PP in general.
I think if something working, teams should keep doing it till other teams figure a way to stop it. Vice versa, if something is not working, it needs to make adjustment till it starts working.
I am also not into personal stats and awards, as I have been saying since two years ago, the only individual awards I care is the Conn Symthe and the only stats I care is the 16Wins in the playoffs.

 

[Trapper]

Boston’s Perfection Line stays intact because they produce in the regular season and playoffs!

Boston keeps those who demonstrate this and fit their values.
They’ve traded players greater than people are worried about who don’t.

 

[usernamezrhardtodo]

Galchenyuk makes a risky pass that loses OT and then attempts the same pass in OT the very next game. Tortorella would of tombstoned him on the ice.

For all the fans of Gally wanting him to be re-signed...I will show them your post. He did exactly what you said and was benched for a whole period. If you made a play that ended up costing you a game in overtime..in the playoffs...you have to be a special kind of stupid to do it again the next game...like I mean special...

 

[weems]

For all the fans of Gally wanting him to be re-signed...I will show them your post. He did exactly what you said and was benched for a whole period. If you made a play that ended up costing you a game in overtime..in the playoffs...you have to be a special kind of stupid to do it again the next game...like I mean special...

It really speaks to the culture around this team.

After costing his team the previous game you'd think he'd be terrified to attempt another such play.

Always trying to pull off the highlight reel play when theres a much easier option available.

 

[Trapper]

TB are a team that many say "Well they're a skilled team that wins", ya but they dont take shortcuts and actually impose themselves.

I flipped game 4 on the other night and right away, TB gets in the offensive zone and finished every single check which in total was about 5 in a 30 second sequence.

Watch the next NYI vs BOS game and every player will skate fullspeed into a 50/50 puck battle. Every player will finish their check. Every player that has a chance to drive the puck to the front of the net will do so and not opt for a low % perimeter shot because they might get hit or crosschecked.

This style of play is what wins in the playoffs and has since hockey was invented. If you dont play this way you essentially become very easy to play against and dont wear the opposing team down over 7 games (You can also basically omit injury for the other team also). It's not about going out and grabbing the Simmonds or Foligno's of the world. It's about having a standard that everyone does the necessary things each shift and that means alot of the greasy physically demanding things.

This core plays that way for short stretchs but its definitely not every game and certainly not every shift.

People conveniently miss this. Because they are skilled, just like Chicago and Pittsburgh, they think it’s just skill. We have skill, why not us.

Everybody plays like Zach Hyman in the playoffs.

 

[JayfromNB1219]

I think he can still salvage his relationship with the fan base. If he renegotiates his contract to a lower cap hit and publicly apologizes and I really do believe this fan base will get behind him.

Hahah aren’t you a dreamer…no way he or any professional hockey player EVER does that…he doesn’t care about the fan base as it literally barely affects him, there are a ton of Leafs fans who will line up to see him regardless of his performance because he is “Mitch Marner” he wins either way

 

[Notsince67]

HE is a scared child.

You need to find some self awareness

 

[Notsince67]

On a third line playing with Phil Kessel’s former line mates. Maybe the answer is he shouldn’t be played Ryan Suter minutes and run out there with Matthews like they’re the second coming of Kariya and Selanne.

Against Boston, he always drew the toughest competition.

 

[Notsince67]

Against weaker matchups. Ever since has had top pairing players go against him, he has been absolute ass.

Did you watch the games because he was matched against the toughest competition. Boston planned against him, not matthews