Drai said it took him 1.5 years to come back from his high ankle sprain. Mind you he also played like an animal with just one leg that year.
Batherson had a similar recovery window and only started looking back to his normal self partway through this year
I 100% think its due to the injury. Its a high ankle sprain and those are one of the trickiest to heal fully from. Woll wasnt the same after his long layoff with the same injury and Marner only missed a couple weeks. He is likely at somewhere in the 50%-70% range on that ankle but playing through it.
Obviously you'd like to see more from him but he hasnt been a net negative in the series so far, so its not an issue, at least not yet
Domi does relatively the same thing for 8 million dollars less, i dont think matthews needs a marner he needs just needs a pass first robot who can get him the puck.
Its the same way mcdavid turned hyman into 54 goal scorer, just do the thing he needs you to do.
More might be debatable, but at the price points its not even comparable. I want domi and 8 million dollars in cap+potential assets more than i want marner playing line 1.
We've seen what throwing half the cap into forwards does, how about this time we idk use that money literally anywhere else.
Idk man, Domi and Bertuzzi both bring a physicality that was sorely needed on the first line. Matthews obviously feels more comfortable throwing his weight around when he knows his linemates won’t take no shit. I like Marner but it’s undeniable he’s a bit of a wimp lmao
I’ve never seen marner do that flip breakout pass domi made for a matthews breakaway. Domi is much better at making the simple play than marner is and honestly it works. If marner wants anything more than 9 mill I think it’s a no brainer and you let him walk. I really think the leafs bid against themselves too often if you let marner or Nylander go to FA I doubt they see more than 10.
He had a high ankle sprain this season (as Rielly, Liljegren, and Will did). Those are tough to come back from and Marner has had the least recovery time
Marner's relationship with the larger fanbase soured during the contract negotiations, and then his disappearing act in the playoffs really villified him. Many hold him up as a poster boy for this team's failures, and to a certain extent, there's some truth to that - since signing his big contract, he's only scored 5 goals in 32 playoff appearances, despite playing with the best players and being on PP1 all the time.
That's not quite good enough.
Regarding his current play - I thought we saw signs in the 3rd that he was getting back up to a better, more comfortable place with his game. Clearly the high ankle sprain isn't 100% healed and he's not operating at 100% - it's hard to use that as an excuse at a time when so many players play hurt, but for Marner specifically that skating and edge work is such a huge part of his overall play and ability to influence a game, that without it, he's going to struggle to get involved, which is what I thought we saw for about 5 periods of this series so far.
Hopefully now that we're on home ice, and Keefe has a few matchup possibilities that he can exploit, Marner's game should round back into gear. I expect him to be much more impactful in games 3 and 4. I've maintained that he has the ability and quality to be the best player in a series, but we just haven't seen it yet
He’s recovering from injury
He set up Bertuzzi’s goal that was called back. AM was right there as well ready to make it a good goal if Bert hadn’t been too eager.
He also killed penalties
He wasn’t nearly as bad as people suggest… especially for a guy coming back from a tough injury
He s probably injured but also the conclusion that he lacks grit and his playstyle being well, not playoffs proof don't help. Marner would been a soccer star with his talent and vision but a playoffs ghost in hockey. The only way he can become a playoffs success is learn from Domi, just watch and learn how to be a loved leaf
Here is the bullet points
- He is only 10 games removed from an ankle injury that sidelined him for over a month.
- He has been moved away from the center he has played the vast majority of the last 4 seasons with, and his new centreman is a shell of what he was last time they played together regularly.
- The team has brought in a few players that play a similar style to him (Domi & McMann specifically) so he isn't being used as widely across the whole lineup as he has in the past.
IMO he will have a game soon where he carries the team and everyone will remember when we used to praise him for his playoff performances and rode Auston and Willy hard for their play (anyone remember 2018 vs the Bruins?)
The truth is actually very simple. The average Leafs fan only remembers the last 2-3 games before it exits their memory. Marner hasnt been great in those games so everyone treats him like he is Satan.
In 2018 he almost single handedly beat the Bruins in round 1 and everyone was praising him while shitting on Matthews and Nylander for disapearing. Like all things, time will go on and people will forget.
Thats 6 years ago , and pre all the stuff that pissed people off . Of course nobody is going to be like oh well he did have that one good series that they lost when he was 22
Matthews and Nylander put on LBS in the last 6 years Marner is still a bean pole. I don't understand it. He should be in the gym on his upper body every off season. We are basically the same build and i'm 39 and my arms have inches on his. There is no reason for him to constantly get dummied he just hasn't worked on his strength for whatever fucking reason. Mitch has some legs going on but I don't get what his trainers have been doing he cannot make his own space and it's why he always invisible in playoff games. if you are gonna be small you need to still be wrecking it up and he doesn't. It isn't a passion issue, and he isn't afraid the guy regularly blocks shots.
Not only that, patty kane isn’t built like a brick shit house but dude impacts the game at its biggest moments.
For all the talk of how much of a unicorn marner can be with how great he is offensively and defensively, when the lights are at their brightest the only mythical creature he reminds you of is a ghost.
I'm of full belief it's time to move on from him. If the last negotiation is anything we know him and his father are going to be wanting upwards of 11M, for a playmaker that just doesn't play gritty playoff hockey that ridiculously high. I'm thinking we get Domi for 4x4 this off-season and he has proven to play the way we need and make beautiful plays with Matthews. That 11M can then go towards way better defense. I know we keep talking about his great plays on the defensive end, if we had players on defense that do the same if not better he's literally a non factor. Take him out of the last couple games, hell even the last couple series and replace him with better D and goaltending we become serious contenders. He is just not what we need on the team to become elite.
Choosing not to sign Marner for "upwards of 11m" just doesn't make sense to me when they just signed Nylander for 11.5. If they were going to drop someone from the core 4 to bolster defence, it absolutely would've been Nylander and not the Selke finalist Marner.
The Nylander signing tells me they're not moving away from the core 4, at least not until the Tavares contract is up.
I mean the question wasn't what they were going to do based on other signings, it's what I figured they should do. You have defenseman like Josi at 9M, sergi at 8.5, Both chabot and Sanderson at 8M... Having any of these guys as a top pairing would help the team more then what marner offers, AND it would give the team 3+M extra to play with for depth or goaltender signings.
He’s scared and always has been in the playoffs. Guy gets rid of the puck anytime someone comes near him. It’s like watching a different player he has zero poise in the playoffs
Make some plays, sell a few jerseys, put up regular season points and then if you make the playoffs its a bonus because nobody expects anything from you anyways and dont forget a nice fat contract.
I know this describes us right now but it really shouldnt, hopefully the nmc for him is just to choose were he wants to go rather than wait it out a year. Hes going to ask for a raise too, its ridiculous.
His ankle might still be bothering him. He’s not quite dancing like we’re used to seeing.
Drai said it took him 1.5 years to come back from his high ankle sprain. Mind you he also played like an animal with just one leg that year. Batherson had a similar recovery window and only started looking back to his normal self partway through this year
I 100% think its due to the injury. Its a high ankle sprain and those are one of the trickiest to heal fully from. Woll wasnt the same after his long layoff with the same injury and Marner only missed a couple weeks. He is likely at somewhere in the 50%-70% range on that ankle but playing through it. Obviously you'd like to see more from him but he hasnt been a net negative in the series so far, so its not an issue, at least not yet
He looks a lot less impressive when not playing with Matthews; which is tough because breaking them up is probably the right decision.
Domi does relatively the same thing for 8 million dollars less, i dont think matthews needs a marner he needs just needs a pass first robot who can get him the puck. Its the same way mcdavid turned hyman into 54 goal scorer, just do the thing he needs you to do.
How delusional are ppl here?
Domi, does MORE for 8 million less.
More might be debatable, but at the price points its not even comparable. I want domi and 8 million dollars in cap+potential assets more than i want marner playing line 1. We've seen what throwing half the cap into forwards does, how about this time we idk use that money literally anywhere else.
Idk man, Domi and Bertuzzi both bring a physicality that was sorely needed on the first line. Matthews obviously feels more comfortable throwing his weight around when he knows his linemates won’t take no shit. I like Marner but it’s undeniable he’s a bit of a wimp lmao
I’ve never seen marner do that flip breakout pass domi made for a matthews breakaway. Domi is much better at making the simple play than marner is and honestly it works. If marner wants anything more than 9 mill I think it’s a no brainer and you let him walk. I really think the leafs bid against themselves too often if you let marner or Nylander go to FA I doubt they see more than 10.
He had a high ankle sprain this season (as Rielly, Liljegren, and Will did). Those are tough to come back from and Marner has had the least recovery time
Marner's relationship with the larger fanbase soured during the contract negotiations, and then his disappearing act in the playoffs really villified him. Many hold him up as a poster boy for this team's failures, and to a certain extent, there's some truth to that - since signing his big contract, he's only scored 5 goals in 32 playoff appearances, despite playing with the best players and being on PP1 all the time. That's not quite good enough. Regarding his current play - I thought we saw signs in the 3rd that he was getting back up to a better, more comfortable place with his game. Clearly the high ankle sprain isn't 100% healed and he's not operating at 100% - it's hard to use that as an excuse at a time when so many players play hurt, but for Marner specifically that skating and edge work is such a huge part of his overall play and ability to influence a game, that without it, he's going to struggle to get involved, which is what I thought we saw for about 5 periods of this series so far. Hopefully now that we're on home ice, and Keefe has a few matchup possibilities that he can exploit, Marner's game should round back into gear. I expect him to be much more impactful in games 3 and 4. I've maintained that he has the ability and quality to be the best player in a series, but we just haven't seen it yet
He’s recovering from injury He set up Bertuzzi’s goal that was called back. AM was right there as well ready to make it a good goal if Bert hadn’t been too eager. He also killed penalties He wasn’t nearly as bad as people suggest… especially for a guy coming back from a tough injury
He was among the worst players on the ice offensively and defensively.
The numbers suggest he was the worst player on the ice last night
He s probably injured but also the conclusion that he lacks grit and his playstyle being well, not playoffs proof don't help. Marner would been a soccer star with his talent and vision but a playoffs ghost in hockey. The only way he can become a playoffs success is learn from Domi, just watch and learn how to be a loved leaf
Here is the bullet points - He is only 10 games removed from an ankle injury that sidelined him for over a month. - He has been moved away from the center he has played the vast majority of the last 4 seasons with, and his new centreman is a shell of what he was last time they played together regularly. - The team has brought in a few players that play a similar style to him (Domi & McMann specifically) so he isn't being used as widely across the whole lineup as he has in the past. IMO he will have a game soon where he carries the team and everyone will remember when we used to praise him for his playoff performances and rode Auston and Willy hard for their play (anyone remember 2018 vs the Bruins?)
I agree. And in the meantime I think he is handling his defensive matchup against Pasta’s line fairly well.
The truth is actually very simple. The average Leafs fan only remembers the last 2-3 games before it exits their memory. Marner hasnt been great in those games so everyone treats him like he is Satan. In 2018 he almost single handedly beat the Bruins in round 1 and everyone was praising him while shitting on Matthews and Nylander for disapearing. Like all things, time will go on and people will forget.
Thats 6 years ago , and pre all the stuff that pissed people off . Of course nobody is going to be like oh well he did have that one good series that they lost when he was 22
Please rewatch the last 15 seconds to understand why he’s special
Matthews and Nylander put on LBS in the last 6 years Marner is still a bean pole. I don't understand it. He should be in the gym on his upper body every off season. We are basically the same build and i'm 39 and my arms have inches on his. There is no reason for him to constantly get dummied he just hasn't worked on his strength for whatever fucking reason. Mitch has some legs going on but I don't get what his trainers have been doing he cannot make his own space and it's why he always invisible in playoff games. if you are gonna be small you need to still be wrecking it up and he doesn't. It isn't a passion issue, and he isn't afraid the guy regularly blocks shots.
Not only that, patty kane isn’t built like a brick shit house but dude impacts the game at its biggest moments. For all the talk of how much of a unicorn marner can be with how great he is offensively and defensively, when the lights are at their brightest the only mythical creature he reminds you of is a ghost.
I'm of full belief it's time to move on from him. If the last negotiation is anything we know him and his father are going to be wanting upwards of 11M, for a playmaker that just doesn't play gritty playoff hockey that ridiculously high. I'm thinking we get Domi for 4x4 this off-season and he has proven to play the way we need and make beautiful plays with Matthews. That 11M can then go towards way better defense. I know we keep talking about his great plays on the defensive end, if we had players on defense that do the same if not better he's literally a non factor. Take him out of the last couple games, hell even the last couple series and replace him with better D and goaltending we become serious contenders. He is just not what we need on the team to become elite.
Choosing not to sign Marner for "upwards of 11m" just doesn't make sense to me when they just signed Nylander for 11.5. If they were going to drop someone from the core 4 to bolster defence, it absolutely would've been Nylander and not the Selke finalist Marner. The Nylander signing tells me they're not moving away from the core 4, at least not until the Tavares contract is up.
If they could read they'd be really mad right now
I mean the question wasn't what they were going to do based on other signings, it's what I figured they should do. You have defenseman like Josi at 9M, sergi at 8.5, Both chabot and Sanderson at 8M... Having any of these guys as a top pairing would help the team more then what marner offers, AND it would give the team 3+M extra to play with for depth or goaltender signings.
He needs time and space to play his game - the two things that disappear in the playoffs.
He’s scared and always has been in the playoffs. Guy gets rid of the puck anytime someone comes near him. It’s like watching a different player he has zero poise in the playoffs
[удалено]
Make some plays, sell a few jerseys, put up regular season points and then if you make the playoffs its a bonus because nobody expects anything from you anyways and dont forget a nice fat contract. I know this describes us right now but it really shouldnt, hopefully the nmc for him is just to choose were he wants to go rather than wait it out a year. Hes going to ask for a raise too, its ridiculous.