Player Discussion Mitch Marner

[Tak7]

That’s Keefe trying to get him going and trying to deflect attention away. Most Toronto media will believe what he said.

Oh, Keefe is absolutely trying to blow smoke up his butt to get him going and feeling good - just pointing out that it's different than in previous years. More sympathetic on account of injury, or a different tactic because nothing else has worked. Who knows.

 

[Punch Drunk Loov]

It's a little discouraging that Domi, a 3M winger can display similar game breaking offense to support Matthews.

This should be opening up a lot for Mitch to face easier opponents at 3.5X the cost. Hope to see results. As much as doing the little things is great he's making superstar money and we do need to demand superstar production

 

[Larcos_Unal]

I don’t see the need to character assassinate the guy

There's no need for anyone to do this, just put a microphone in front of him and ask him a basic question.

 

[IPS]

[/QUOTE]

I like Marner I have no agenda, but come on man wake up, we need you to get it going!

Same here. He needs a multi-point game in Toronto because he's been trash to start this series. Don't bash the critics, Marner's giving them all the ammo they need, it's on him to change the narrative.

 

[Gary Nylund]

There's no need for anyone to do this, just put a microphone in front of him and ask him a basic question.

Ha, sad but true. Not that anyone cares, he can sound as dumb as a rock for all I care, just start playing the 11 million dollar man at some point.

I'm hoping this is the beginning of a new MO for Marner that's the opposite of the old MO so he'll suck for the first 4 games of the playoffs, and then produce at an elite pace the rest of the way. One can dream.

 

[Jojalu]

Went out of his way to throw a ton of praise on Mitch, despite getting a question about the Matthews line.

"I thought Mitch was all over the game too. Making plays offensively for us at different times. Great defensive play. He's playing almost every shift against Pastrnak and doing a really good job helping us there and on the penalty kill".

Keefe has been here long enough to know what's going to happen when anyone of the 4 are not going.

He is just trying to get ahead of it.

 

[Mr_Fun]

I haven't liked his game through 2 games but I don't see the problem with this one at all.

He's clearly trying to gain the inside edge and try to stop the puck from getting out. It's not like he's doing this in our zone. He's doing it in the Bruins zone to try and get that puck.

I think people are seeing what they want to see.

At least he's not trying to do way too much when he's struggling offensively. I didn't notice any horrible turnovers from trying to find something that isn't there.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Disclaimer - I was drinking a fair bit last night so anyone can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I had a peek at the GDT and there were a TON of people yelling at Marner for this "blown coverage". IMHO, this is complete nonsense as Marner's man was the Dman at the left point, not Pasta. Marner did his job and his share of blame on that goal is 0%.

This is Dzone_coverage.101, I learned this when I was about 10 years old and I don't think these fundamentals of Dzone coverage have changed in the last 50 years.

Yeah Benoit lost his guy and Marner didn’t switch coverage soon enough.. they literally went over this on the panel. Benoit got caught way out.

Marner hasn’t produced yet but he’s playing with a couple of black holes right now. Hopefully he’ll get them going out get McMann when he’s back.

Good news is the Leafs are tied and Marner and Nylander haven’t factored in yet.

 

[Stephen]

Disclaimer - I was drinking a fair bit last night so anyone can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I had a peek at the GDT and there were a TON of people yelling at Marner for this "blown coverage". IMHO, this is complete nonsense as Marner's man was the Dman at the left point, not Pasta. Marner did his job and his share of blame on that goal is 0%.

This is Dzone_coverage.101, I learned this when I was about 10 years old and I don't think these fundamentals of Dzone coverage have changed in the last 50 years.

Actually it has changed somewhat in recent years and applies really well to that blown Marner Benoit situation. I was reading the Scotty Bowman, Ken Dryden book and one of the areas of change Scotty cited as a new coaching terrain was the shift of the blueline out to increase the size of the offensive zone…

The design of that rule was to create more offense but also manages to create more perimeter, which some teams are happy to concede, opting to plug up the net front. When people talk about the point shot going out of style that extra distance also factors in. As well, Bowman talked about how that shift changed the way certain stars from the past like Gretzky and Lemieux might play “up top” with so much more space before the blueline.

Getting back to Marner, with only so many seconds to go and basically survival mode, I think the proper adjustment there would have just been to collapse to protect the slot, park the bus, gum everything up and concede a point shot if necessary. Drifting up high while there was a fire drill going on was not the right call.

 

[ULF_55]

Marner hasn’t produced yet but he’s playing with a couple of black holes right now. Hopefully he’ll get them going out get McMann when he’s back.

Can you imagine playing the season with them?

 

[Antropovsky]

Can you imagine playing the season with them?

Knies Tavares Marner played all of 11 minutes together 5v5 in the season.

Tavares and Marner played only 225 mins together total.

5v5 during this season Marner played 720 Mins with Matthews and only 277 mins without Matthews.

 

[Antropovsky]

2024 season, Marner vs others on various lines 5v5:

Bertuzzi Matthews Domi
xgf/60 4.23
Xga/60 2.2

Bertuzzi Matthews Marner
xgf/60 3.65
Xga/60 1.63

Knies Matthews Nylander
xgf/60 3.72
Xga/60 2.29

Knies Matthews Marner
xgf/60 3.16
Xga/60 2.23

Bertuzzi Tavares Nylander
xgf/60 3.37
Xga/60 2.59

Bertuzzi Tavares Marner
xgf/60 2.44
Xga/60 2.73

 

[HolyCrap]

Anybody else having sign in issues and the site flashing back and forth from light to dark modes? It’s a mess for me.

 

[Antropovsky]

It's a bit strange that the narrative now is that we should be grateful that our 23 million dollar line is shutting down the 17 million dollar Boston line.

For the past 8 years weve been told Marner was easily the better player between Pasta and him, this was reiterated by @Dekes For Days only a few months ago. Now we are joyful Marner and Tavares can shut down Pasta, whose on a line with a 32 year old center whose broke 45 points twice in his career and a <1 million dollar, 28 year old ufa pickup? Umm OK.

BTW... Holmberg and Kampf have slightly better advanced stats than Marner vs Pasta on the PK.

Additionally, according to advanced stats, Matthews line has outright dominated Pasta whenever they have faced this playoffs. While Marners line is being outplayed by Pastas. So, I don't know if its Marners line is shutting down Pasta more than Boston having home ice and doing whatever they can to keep Pasta from Matthews.

Also want to send a friendly reminder that when Marner was injured some were saying Marner is more important to this team than Matthews

 

[Gary Nylund]

Actually it has changed somewhat in recent years and applies really well to that blown Marner Benoit situation. I was reading the Scotty Bowman, Ken Dryden book and one of the areas of change Scotty cited as a new coaching terrain was the shift of the blueline out to increase the size of the offensive zone…

The design of that rule was to create more offense but also manages to create more perimeter, which some teams are happy to concede, opting to plug up the net front. When people talk about the point shot going out of style that extra distance also factors in. As well, Bowman talked about how that shift changed the way certain stars from the past like Gretzky and Lemieux might play “up top” with so much more space before the blueline.

Getting back to Marner, with only so many seconds to go and basically survival mode, I think the proper adjustment there would have just been to collapse to protect the slot, park the bus, gum everything up and concede a point shot if necessary. Drifting up high while there was a fire drill going on was not the right call.

That sounds like a system thing so blame Keefe maybe?

 

[Gabriel426]

More likely he's not scared and people just see what they want to see.

He did played like he was scared in Game 1.
He was a lot better in Game 2 like more engage and willing to carry the puck more but still far from his usual buzzing and dictating self.
Hope he is having slow start in playoffs as Leafs chance of winning is higher when he is at his best.

 

[pcruz]

That sounds like a system thing so blame Keefe maybe?

Keefe isn't the guy on the ice.

The players have to be smart enough to notice when an opponent is making himself open and available I the danger areas of the ice, and react accordingly.


Of the players on the team, Mitch is the 2nd last I expect to have to bring that up to, as he is a very strong defender and normally well positioned, he trails only Matthews in these regards.

The pass was phenomenal, the chase up the ice was dumb, but not fatal. Marner didn't rotate down quickly enough and Pastrnak is not some run of the mill player.


What Marner hasn't done yet since returning from injury, is assert himself with the puck.

He hasn't been his usual silky self yet.
The timing is quite obviously still not there.


Hopefully it comes back tomorrow because Toronto can't just rely on 1 guy to be the offense and the defensive help...

 

[Cleetus]

Anybody else having sign in issues and the site flashing back and forth from light to dark modes? It’s a mess for me.

nope all good here, using firefox browser

 

[57 Years No Cup]

Anybody else having sign in issues and the site flashing back and forth from light to dark modes? It’s a mess for me.

it's a new HFBoards feature called "eclipse mode". It goes away in about 3 minutes!

 

[Jojalu]

It's a bit strange that the narrative now is that we should be grateful that our 23 million dollar line is shutting down the 17 million dollar Boston line.

For the past 8 years weve been told Marner was easily the better player between Pasta and him, this was reiterated by @Dekes For Days only a few months ago. Now we are joyful Marner and Tavares can shut down Pasta, whose on a line with a 32 year old center whose broke 45 points twice in his career and a <1 million dollar, 28 year old ufa pickup? Umm OK.

BTW... Holmberg and Kampf have slightly better advanced stats than Marner vs Pasta on the PK.

Additionally, according to advanced stats, Matthews line has outright dominated Pasta whenever they have faced this playoffs. While Marners line is being outplayed by Pastas. So, I don't know if its Marners line is shutting down Pasta more than Boston having home ice and doing whatever they can to keep Pasta from Matthews.

Also want to send a friendly reminder that when Marner was injured some were saying Marner is more important to this team than Matthews

that we should be grateful that our 23 million dollar line is shutting down the 17 million dollar Boston line.

To be honest, I am pretty grateful for anything that leads to a Leaf victory.

Could Marner be playing better? Absolutely.

But if he is helping the team win, just by eating all the mins against the Pasta line( who has 1 point in 2 games) and the rest of the team has an easier matchup they can win...

If they lose and Marner struggles the whole time, it will be time to discuss what's next

 

[Racer88]

it's a new HFBoards feature called "eclipse mode". It goes away in about 3 minutes!

Don’t look at with out the special glasses

 

[Clark4Ever]

It's a little discouraging that Domi, a 3M winger can display similar game breaking offense to support Matthews.

This should be opening up a lot for Mitch to face easier opponents at 3.5X the cost. Hope to see results. As much as doing the little things is great he's making superstar money and we do need to demand superstar production

I'm getting ahead of myself here, but Domi could very well end up being the reason Treliving might not cave in to Marner's contract demands.

 

[dubey]

I'm getting ahead of myself here, but Domi could very well end up being the reason Treliving might not cave in to Marner's contract demands.

We've seen enough of Marner to know that Domi had more impact on that one game than Marner will ever have on a playoff game

 

[Punch Drunk Loov]

I'm getting ahead of myself here, but Domi could very well end up being the reason Treliving might not cave in to Marner's contract demands.

Well see how the rest of the playoffs unfold. If it goes terribly or Domi significantly outperforms Marner then yes I'd agree you need to seriously reconsider giving Marner more money than everyone else in the league save Matthews.

 

[ACC1224]

He did played like he was scared in Game 1.
He was a lot better in Game 2 like more engage and willing to carry the puck more but still far from his usual buzzing and dictating self.
Hope he is having slow start in playoffs as Leafs chance of winning is higher when he is at his best.

I think people can confuse being hesitant for being scared. I wouldn’t expect much different, he’s obviously not over his ankle injury. It’ll take the off season to get back to normal.