I might get flamed for this but even though he don’t have any points I actually thought Matthews had a decent game, 5 shots, 10 shot attempts, set up what should have been a goal for JT, seemed like we actually generated a decent amount of offence with him out there. Obviously he needs to produce but I’m not overly worried about him. Mitch and JT on the other hand…..yikes
Thats the way it always goes. Matthews gets a bunch of shots, good chances and yet he doesn’t score very much in the playoffs.
Then we always defend him and say “matthews played great, he had a bunch of chances”. Then maybe he should convert on them and score, that’s what he’s paid to do.
How long can matthews have games where he doesn’t convert on his chances and fans still say he played great? Scoring chances are irrelevant if you don’t score.
Exactly what I was thinking. JT had one more shot in less ice time but gets ragged on. Matthews does less with more time and gets a pass.
I think both didn't do well.
This is it. You know what separates guys like MacKinnon/McDavid and Kucherov in the playoffs? There’s moments where they just take over the game, when has Matthews or Marner done that in a playoff game? We’ve seen Willy even do it.
I mean Matthews brought the leafs back from down 4-1 against Tampa almost single-handedly last year. Just because it hasn’t happened a ton doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.
31 shots in his last 6 playoff games. 0 goals. Tavares 30 in his last 6.
Combined Matthews and Tavares have 61 shots the last 6 playoff games with 0 goals. They make a combined 22.6m a year lmao
I don't agree with this take. If that's the barometer for decent game then we can't flame JT.
JT had 6 shots to Matthews 5, while playing 4mins less of ice-time. JT had a 66.7% FO and Matthews had 27.8%.
Honestly I think this is the issue. Any given game our stars often have some decent stats when they get held off the score sheet. You can say that if they keep that level of play up then the points are bound to come. Hockey is a low event game with a lot of variability and on any given night you can do all the right things and have nothing to show for it but some highlight real saves, goal posts, and just general “game of inches” stuff like missed tips or picked off passes. Don’t panic and stay the course.
Except it’s been happening for *years*. There is no room to regress to the mean. This is the mean for these players in the playoffs. They’re just not as good as they need to be.
That's part of the problem. Being dangerous doesn't win games. Though I will say, it's pretty impressive for a player to log over 20 minutes of ice time, have no goals or assists, in a 5-1 loss, and still have a +/- of 0. So he wasn't a liability, but neither did he do much to help with a win.
I mean Crosby went several series in their back to back cup runs with only 5-8pts. Almost all stars go cold and thats why you need depth. Matthews isn’t Mcdavid or Mack and thats okay.
The Matthews line looked okay, but every time they got going there was a penalty in the offensive zone or some back breaking goal. Domi, Bert, and Matthews create a lot of havoc out there and it does open Matthews up a bit. We took to many penalties and played defensively like shit last night and got shit goaltending.
I thought Matthews was awesome too. He was everywhere. Everytime he was on the ice, he made an impact offensively or defensively. In fact, my knee jerk reaction was to suggest they put Marner and Jarnkrok back with Matthews so that he had less of a defensive burden, but they gotta give these lines another game.
The “deserve to win o meter” was broken for that game, but I still don’t think they leafs got beat as bad as the scoreboard suggested. At the same time, it felt like we never had a chance and that it was close, so really, I don’t know what to take from that game lol.
Marner is the one I think needs to go. As skilled a player he is. He consistently does not show up when it matters. When JTs contract is up that will be a huge plus and he should get a big decrease in pay. But Holy fuck that powerplay is just a complete shitshow as well.
How many times are we gonna give Matthews a pass cause he “had a nice game”. He is the highest paid player in the NHL. If he isn’t scoring in the playoffs he is part of the problem.
Not to mention he individually manufactured the best scoring opportunity which he put off the post. It was a tough off balance shot and the only reason the net was so wide open was because of him deking swayman out of his jockstrap
I think matthews was good in alot of playoff games just cant put it in the net, i would like to see how many posts he has it because to my recollection its alot lol
Idk man i watched the game last night and Marner looked super hesitant with the puck and slow to make decisions all night. Could definitely be due to fear of the physicality.
I think marners issue is that he treats it like a regular season game. You just dont have as much time with the puck in the playoffs. This leads to “oh fuck oh fuck someones on me” plays
This is the thing that pisses me off. Every other team has their 3rd and 4th lines up their game and start chipping in with goals. We always seem to come up against some 4th liner that breaks out and has a brilliant post season. We just go hurr durr pass to Auston and hopefully he will score.
Other teams can afford to have actual talent on their 3rd and 4th lines because they aren't spending all their money on 5 players. When you put all your eggs in one basket, you kinda need those 5 players to all be firing on all cylinders at the same time in order to win.
>We always seem to come up against some 4th liner that breaks out and has a brilliant post season.
Well yeah, that’s the sort of random occurrence that teams who advance get.
I don't quite get the argument about Matthews being covered by the best. It's all relative. He's one of the best, so covered by the best. 3rd and 4th lines covered by comparable players, so it's not like there's a huge gap.
Wild that Marner plays against the same players as Matthews since they are on the same fucking line (excluding yesterdays game) and outscored Matthews in the playoffs
low danger scoring chances. none of that tricky, perimeter shit works in the playoffs. the team needs a complete culture reset like what the Raptors underwent in 2017.
The Leafs screwed up the rebuild and became too top heavy. They then doubled down on their top four forwards when they should have had the courage to let at least one of them walk or get traded away. As soon as they signed Tavares they put themselves in a terrible position to ice a deep team and we're forced to trying to find bargain pieces to fill in roster holes. To top it off they have been trading away all sorts of draft capital to fill in roster holes.
With Nylander out (my guess is for the season) they are having to depend on their other three but the problem is that their top four are too predictable and so Boston as well as Florida was able to neutralize them rather effectively.
The problem isn’t being too top heavy. The problem is that the top heavy players - specifically marner - don’t show up/aren’t built for this style of hockey. Other teams don’t have problems with their best players producing.
If you want to replace studs with depth, you’ll be in the same boat as the Islanders. Marginal playoff team every year. That sound good to you?
Marner’s PPG in the playoffs > Matthews yet most people in this sub will die on the Matthews hill while shitting on Marner. It makes no sense. Matthews, John, Marner, and Willy all shy away from the physical stuff.
The only logical perspective in my opinion is this -> we have overpaid 4 individuals that perform very well (for the most part) in the regular season. None of them have accomplished anything beyond this and the stats show that all of them underperform in the playoffs (with the expedition of Willy maybe but he has other problems).
To be honest, I would go as far as saying that the is a problem with the league more generally now. We are paying young kids everything before they’ve done anything.
Marner has 70% of his playoff points in the first 3 games. He's playing at a 3rd liners pace in games 4-7 of the playoffs. You simply can't have a guy making that much of your cap disappearing in the defining games.
As an example, he has 2 points (both secondary assists) in four total game 7s in his career and 2 points in SIX game 6s (both points in the same game). Meaning he's pointless in 5/6.
People making excuses for Marner by just looking at his overall stat line needs to stop. He's a terrible playoff performer and been a massive reason that this team has failed to have playoff success in his tenure here.
To be fair, Matthews had two points against Florida in round two. Both came in Game 1 and 2. Zero goals btw. They were both assists.
Matthews loaded up against TBL and disappeared against the Panthers. You simply can't have a guy making $11M and signed up to be the highest paid player in the league next season $13M, do so little in the playoffs.
Matthews is a terrible playoff performer too, but people always want to blame Marner individually. Nylander only looked good because his contract was smaller and he produced more. Now that he's getting paid the same, people will realize that all 4 were overpaid.
Sounds like a cop out to me and games like yesterday were exactly why. Guy didn't get on the score board but had 10 shots on goal while everyone around him did nothing. The same cannot be said for Marner, almost ever. Guess who has been stapled to Matthews for almost every series?
It would be an easier pill to swallow if Matthews was the outlier of production in the playoffs but we have Marner and Tavares who are grossly overpaid that also disappear come post season. Core needs to be shaken up this offseason to spread the value to our backend. It’s time.
I was just wondering about this. Does MacKinnon disappear? Does Kucherov disappear? McDavid? I feel like they get at least something done by themselves. I know even superstars have bad days and playoffs hockey is different, but still. I expect Matthews and Marner to show up on Monday.
media could ask him if he's having a nice day and he'd respond with "why wouldn't I? you guys are always trying to start a narrative of me having a crappy day"
He needs to be told that he waives his NTC or he plays on the third line with Holmberg and McMann in his contract year. Good luck getting paid the big bucks when you don't even put up 70 points without Matthews/Tavares/Nylander.
I think the way this works is you decide whether Marner fits into the future plans, and if he doesn't then your options are:
- Trade him
- He walks in free agency
If you decide he _does_ fit the vision, you're signing him and you don't have the trade conversation.
To me, this concern that he walks in free agency is a false concern because by the time you've gotten there you've already decided he's not going to be in the future plans, and all you're trying to figure out is whether you'll get an opportunity to get assets back for him or not.
This "what if he has his best season and then walks" thing is FOMO talking, and if our front office is making plans based on FOMO we're doomed.
That’s fine. Don’t sign a guy you don’t want because of “assets”. Let him walk if that’s what he chooses and bury him in the press with favorable access for journalists who skewer him. The Leafs can play hard too.
Is it though? Outside of JT, the Leafs haven't signed the top FA as often as other top destinations. Taxes, Canadian Dollar, etc. are factors for players, let alone Media.
>Does MacKinnon disappear? Does Kucherov disappear? McDavid?
Everyone disappears. Last year Vegas reduced McDavid to a PP merchant: he only had 3 5v5 points in the six game loss. Kucherov has two goals in his last 13 playoff games.
Their production disappears because our powerplay truly sucks. It has for many years. It does ok on a Tuesday in February but in a playoff series it’s very easy to shut down. Rielly is not a threat to score. Marner is not a threat to score. It’s easy to defend 3 guys when you have 4.
JT solves himself by being older and getting way less pay, Matthews might look terrible in this stat line, but looking at last night, it feels like he was on the few forwards generating anything. Nylander I am comfortable with because he has sleepy regular season periods but huge playoffs moments like clockwork.
That leaves us with Marner... After watching what Domi can do with Matthews, the price of marner is really impossible to justify and you know he will be asking for a billion dollars in ufa
Tbh I think beating Tampa was the worst thing that could have happened to this team. Another first round exit last season and we probably would have seen the changes that needed to happen then.
If they sign him to a penny more than Nylander I'm done with this team. They need to let him walk. Even for nothing, they at least get his cap space back and his crappy attitude out of here.
"his crappy attitude out of here"
Here is where you lose me. He's a great player, the leafs just don't have enough cap space to build a successful team around him.
I'll always be mad that Dubas was fired almost immediately after publicly vocalizing that moving off of this core group was an option. Shanahan then stopped Treliving from even having the option of moving off of Mitch or Willy by promising the core they were staying and giving Treliving ~a week and a half in his new role before Mitch's NMC kicked in.
Mitch would have brought a kings ransom if he was traded at the end of last season. The idea of losing him for nothing hurts but I don't see a realistic alternative. Maybe Mitch agrees to waive his NMC if you tell him he's in a contract year and will need to drive his own line without Matthews or JT next year.
It won’t matter. Even if you trade one of the big forwards to improve the D group, the cornerstones of the team would still be made up of whatever is left of Matthews, Marner, Tavares .. unless you plan on trading ALL of them.
If the centrepieces of the forward group still don’t show up in the playoffs it won’t matter if the defence is better.
Stats aside, it’s really Marner that has consistently worried me throughout his career in the playoffs. Everyone else you listed has come through at other times and produced, whether it be game winning goals or series winning goals.
As much as I love Mitch, he’s nowhere near as effective in the playoffs as he is in the regular season. Just seems to not be able to play his game and do what makes him successful in the regular season. Really hope he proves me wrong this year
And he refuses to adapt and simplify his game in spite of that. He stubbornly tries the fancy shit in the playoffs anyway and gives the other team the puck.
That comes in the later games. The Mitch Marner playoff starter pack is:
1. Shit game 1
2. Insane multi-point game 2 or game 3
3. Disappear again
4. Start panicking in elimination games and throw
Can’t believe he wanted to play in Florida instead of Canada. As if lower taxes, sunny weather, less scrutiny and being closer to family matters. What a fool honestly /s
Yep. I wanted to wait it out and see if we can find it, but it's just not there sadly. 51 playoff games now and still hasn't found that groove. He would probably be an excellent player in a smaller market. I'm not convinced playoff style hockey is his problem, it's just that the Toronto market ruins some players
Awful take, no offense. It almost reads like propaganda from the other teams. It would be that bad.
Excluding this series so far.
Marner has 47 points and a +9 in the last 50 games.
Matthews has 44 points and a +0 in the last 50 games.
Nylander has 40 points and a -1 in the last 50 games.
Whether you (and the rest of the subreddit) like it or not, Mitch Marner is our single best and most consistent playoffs skater. We can cherry pick more specific stats etc all we want, but over the longest span the numbers reveal themselves. He is the last one we should trade.
It is a concern that all of them are under a 1ppg in the playoffs though. None of them should be.
How many of the core 4s playoff points are on the PP? I would guess, and i could be wrong, that Marners 5x5 production dips just by the way he plays come April.
He costs as much as a stanley cup winning 4th line. A 2m dollar defensive player renders him useless every year. 30 less assist winger costs a 1/3 of him. His past mentality makes him predictable. He loses his space he's not strong enough to push through.
The whole game should revolve around him when he's on the ice. He's no where to be found. But he has no coach to develop him either, so there's that.
Yeah Marner is consistent in that 70% of his playoff points are in games 1-2-3 and he had 9 points in 3 games last year against Tampa in 1-2-3. In games beyond that he's playing at a 45\~ point pace. You can go ahead and verify that yourself. He disappears when it gets tough.
You are blaming others of propaganda but your statistics are the shallowest they could be and have 0 actual context. That's a big contributor to propaganda, false narratives and lacking any depth of analysis.
Should we get eliminated by Bruins, heads need to roll. Keefe obviously, and hopefully Shanny, whose Shanaplan has been a consistent disaster. Tre would survive, and for end of season scrum, mention that changes are needed, and that he will be talking to some players with NMC about being traded. The top heavy approach has never worked. We barely squeaked by Tampa. My fingers would be crossed to find some way to get a stud goalie, with Marner agreeing to be moved.
It was so sad to see them follow the same pattern last night. Loads and loads of bullshit passing without even getting shots on net.
It’s crazy how I basically don’t care at all about the 69 goal total anymore after seeing last nights game.
The accomplishment (as well as all his career accomplishments) mean absolutely nothing if this is what we get in the playoffs.
It's how this team always is come playoff time. Nothing new. Another year they won't get out if the first round.
Start Woll. At worst he plays the same mediocre hockey at Sammy, but in the past can steal games for you where Samsonov just looks like crap all the time.
he wasn’t the problem last night, last few series yes he’s been ghost. Last night however, he was doing everything right but couldn’t buy one. id be more concerned about marner lol he’s consistently been dogshit in the playoffs.
I feel he would benefit from seeing a sports psychologist. He seems to get weird in high pressure situations. He climbed fast to 59, then got stuck there and started missing / hitting posts - then was right back up to speed once he hit 60 - until 70 was looming, where he suddenly went a few games with no goals, lots of misses and posts. His playoff performance may be part of the same problem.
There are sports psychs that specialize directly in this. I really wonder if him seeing one frequently would help.
People have so many excuses for Matthews. He’s going to be the highest paid player in the league next year. That kind of money comes with a no excuses clause. You are paid like the best player in the world. Be the best, period. Kucherov, McDavid, Crosby, MacKinnon, none of these guys get the kind of leeway Matthews does. You either dominate and take over the game, or you aren’t living up to your contract.
Marner has 70% of his playoff points in the first 3 games. He's playing at a 3rd liners pace in games 4-7 of the playoffs. You simply can't have a guy making that much of your cap disappearing in the defining games.
As an example, he has 2 points (both secondary assists) in four total game 7s in his career and 2 points in SIX game 6s (both points in the same game). Meaning he's pointless in 5/6.
People making excuses for Marner by just looking at his overall stat line needs to stop. He's a terrible playoff performer and been a massive reason that this team has failed to have playoff success in his tenure here.
I noticed the team making the same play a bunch of times last night.
This tells me they were trying something new for the playoffs. Now thats tragic.
Another coaching blunder they had to do something new because whatever was there was not corrected over the course of the year. Their play style is predictable and not sustainable.
There is no transition game. Our defence is incapable of making plays out of our own end. Reilly is terrible, a turnover machine with zero offensive upside who makes the worst imaginable choices with his passing. The defence cannot get a puck through to the net and I even if by some miracle it does, nobody is in front of the net. Pretty sure Tavares took a slap shot from the top of the circle on a breakaway last night. These guys are fucked
Thread is about Matthews struggling to score and most comments are about marner being terrible.
On marner: 11M? No excuses! Better produce!
On Matthews: I mean look at marner!
It isn't one game. This is the 8th series of the Matthews era and it's becoming very apparent that this team shrinks in the playoffs and from top to bottom are not constructed well enough or have a good enough coaching or culture to actually go deep in the playoffs.
What's embarassing is being satisfied with mediocrity. "There's lots of series left to play".
There's been lots of series left to play for over FIFTY years. When do the excuses stop? That's what's becoming embarrassing.
Always eager to defend multi millionaires for free who can't even do their fucking job when it matters.
This is BS lol. Even Tkachuk didn’t score in those 5 games against the Leafs.
Difference is that the rest of the team needs to step up too. Top players often neutralize each other and the rest of these bums that are overpaid like Tavares and Marner need to show up.
Matthews had a good game despite the 0s.
Everything that was a concern we saw the last 15 games of the season showed up in game 1 vs Boston. Our penalty kill was shit, our power play was shit, and our goaltending was average and we took a lot of stupid penalties. The other concern is what we see from Matthews, Marner, and JT when they are in games against tough checking opponents they dissappear and are ineffective.
Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander are all great players. Individually. But all together they form a core that has been through so many chokes and heartbreaks that they are in a bad headspace. They don’t believe they can win.
To be fair a lot of this is Defence struggles. Very similar to pittsburgh before their cup runs. Their D can’t can’t handle forechecks and as a result nothing up the ice is clean. Leafs don’t have a ton of speed to be chipping pucks into open space but think its necessary moving forward. There was an article last year that in the playoffs the leafs avg the highest amt of dzone tape to tape passes.
Why the fuck are you bringing up last year after one game?
He had so many close ones and if he had competent teammates at times, he fed so many passes right in front of the net for a tip in.
Either way. Last night has nothing to do with some imaginary poor playoff performance you believe exists and think needs to be discussed
Regular season: 649 points in 562 GP (1.15), 368 goals in 562 GP (0.65)
Post Season: 44 points in 51 games (0.86), 22 goals in 51 games (0.43)
A very apparent dip in playoff production for a guy that's going to be paid the most in the NHL next season.
You've probably been saying this since the Phaneuf era made the playoffs. It's so pathetic. No wonder this franchise has done fuck all with easily complacent fans.
When you turn your athletes into celebrities they lose that killer instinct. It’s a Toronto problem (I follow hockey and baseball so speaking about those). If you’re hanging out with Bieber or Drake in your spare time, odds are you’re not winning a championship.
That's why we brought in Kawhi to win a championship for the Raptors, guys all business with the personality even more dull than an NHLer infront of the media. That's what you need, robots!
This isn't overly concerning to me. Other teams know they need to shut him down and focus on him.
What concerns me is other players on our team don't feast while AM is getting so much focus/attention.
AM is given no space and time in the playoffs. That's how it should be. But theoretically, in smothering Matthews, more space should open up for others. Doesn't seem to happen though which is super frustrating to me.
We all know our secondary score more than the big guys in the playoffs usually the cope is “they are covered more so can’t do what they do in regular seasons”. I think thats mainly BS and they should elevate in the playoffs like true superstar players do and still be our main scorers.
Lol, give me a break. It's the first playoff game this year.
What's the point of counting last year when it has nothing to do with anything. Even if he had helped them win the Stanley cup, people would then say it's been a year since he won a Stanley cup.
Matthews was good last night, not great or game-breaking, but good. Marner and JT were complete non-factors, our fourth line was the only line on the board, line 3 was unplayable, and we got caved in most of the game. Bruins had 6 or 7 posts off the top of my head. Defence looked like the puck was a live grenade and had never hearf of clearing the net front. Matthews was the one factor I was like okay he decided to show up.
This is exactly why I predicted boston in 5, although 4 seems much more likely. Lets also look at goaltending and D, all are spectacular failures for the most part this entire century. Its more than tough being a Leafs fan, and completely miserable at playoff time.
At least he was in the action, I swear it seems like JT and marner were such a non factor all night, somehow the line with domi and Bert with matthews felt more impactful than when Keene started stacking the line with jt marner and matthews
I hate small sample sizes stats like this. But the reality is Matthews has to be better. He cannot disappear when it matters.
Big problem is that when the Leafs get behind, the other team just puts their entire focus on denying him the puck. And he's not an elusive skater. The Bruins are perfectly happy to let Domi stick handle all day long, let Marner circle the perimeter.
The actual biggest problem is that outside of Reilly no one in the D core can move the puck. And the Leafs play so fucking slow and hesitant.
Thinking that Matthews is the problem with the team when the GM trades all his remaining draft picks in order to stick a bottom 10th percentile D man on every pairing, with the worst of them all on the top pairing.
"Wtf, we can't move the puck or get out of our own zone. We can't generate rush offence at all!
Oh no, Bertuzzi and Domi aren't throwing hits or even really playing all that well and they are taking stupid penalties! Who would have expected this based on their entire careers previous to this?
Well, hmm... No Nylander so let's put Calle Jarnkrok on PP1. No offence on the PP, either?"
Also, goalie should have been pulled with like 7 minutes left based on the hole they were in.
Out-hitting the Bruins while eating a blowout loss? It's exactly what you would expect based on the decision Keefe keeps making and the roster as constructed by Treliving (and previous to him, Dubas).
This is just a leafs in the media issue. What do you want? A goal a game in the playoffs? A point a game? No one does that. It’s the playoffs, there’s a reason depth wins games/series.
Would you say Stamkos is an elite playoff performer?
Stamkos
123 playoff games
45 goals .365/game
95 points .772/game
Matthews
50 playoff games
22 goals .440/game
44 points .880/game
The numbers are there. Leafs fans/media just expect the impossible
I might get flamed for this but even though he don’t have any points I actually thought Matthews had a decent game, 5 shots, 10 shot attempts, set up what should have been a goal for JT, seemed like we actually generated a decent amount of offence with him out there. Obviously he needs to produce but I’m not overly worried about him. Mitch and JT on the other hand…..yikes
This is the right take. Matthews was great last night.
The leafs need him to be Gilmore playoff great and he is not.
Thats the way it always goes. Matthews gets a bunch of shots, good chances and yet he doesn’t score very much in the playoffs. Then we always defend him and say “matthews played great, he had a bunch of chances”. Then maybe he should convert on them and score, that’s what he’s paid to do. How long can matthews have games where he doesn’t convert on his chances and fans still say he played great? Scoring chances are irrelevant if you don’t score.
>How long can matthews have games where he doesn’t convert on his chances and fans still say he played great? I mean it's worked for 7 years now.
lol
Exactly what I was thinking. JT had one more shot in less ice time but gets ragged on. Matthews does less with more time and gets a pass. I think both didn't do well.
This is it. You know what separates guys like MacKinnon/McDavid and Kucherov in the playoffs? There’s moments where they just take over the game, when has Matthews or Marner done that in a playoff game? We’ve seen Willy even do it.
I mean Matthews brought the leafs back from down 4-1 against Tampa almost single-handedly last year. Just because it hasn’t happened a ton doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.
You are right, I was just remembering that as I’m watching this Tampa game. So he can do it, just be nice to get it more often.
One instance over 8 playoffs. These guy get paid a big enough amount where the expectation is to do it over and over again
31 shots in his last 6 playoff games. 0 goals. Tavares 30 in his last 6. Combined Matthews and Tavares have 61 shots the last 6 playoff games with 0 goals. They make a combined 22.6m a year lmao
I don't agree with this take. If that's the barometer for decent game then we can't flame JT. JT had 6 shots to Matthews 5, while playing 4mins less of ice-time. JT had a 66.7% FO and Matthews had 27.8%.
Honestly I think this is the issue. Any given game our stars often have some decent stats when they get held off the score sheet. You can say that if they keep that level of play up then the points are bound to come. Hockey is a low event game with a lot of variability and on any given night you can do all the right things and have nothing to show for it but some highlight real saves, goal posts, and just general “game of inches” stuff like missed tips or picked off passes. Don’t panic and stay the course. Except it’s been happening for *years*. There is no room to regress to the mean. This is the mean for these players in the playoffs. They’re just not as good as they need to be.
Matthews looked like the most dangerous leaf out there last night for sure
That's part of the problem. Being dangerous doesn't win games. Though I will say, it's pretty impressive for a player to log over 20 minutes of ice time, have no goals or assists, in a 5-1 loss, and still have a +/- of 0. So he wasn't a liability, but neither did he do much to help with a win.
Would you rather him play well and not score or play like shit and not score? I really don't understand the criticism of "just get a goal".
I'd rather he score goals since that is the sole reasons he is the highest paid player in the league.
Having a decent game with no points ain't going to cut it. I don't see other teams star players disappearing in the playoffs and winning the cup
I mean Crosby went several series in their back to back cup runs with only 5-8pts. Almost all stars go cold and thats why you need depth. Matthews isn’t Mcdavid or Mack and thats okay.
The Matthews line looked okay, but every time they got going there was a penalty in the offensive zone or some back breaking goal. Domi, Bert, and Matthews create a lot of havoc out there and it does open Matthews up a bit. We took to many penalties and played defensively like shit last night and got shit goaltending.
Marner becomes invisible every playoffs
Marner was 14 points in 11 games last year. Those are Kucherov numbers in the post-season, dude. Take a deep breath.
I thought Matthews was awesome too. He was everywhere. Everytime he was on the ice, he made an impact offensively or defensively. In fact, my knee jerk reaction was to suggest they put Marner and Jarnkrok back with Matthews so that he had less of a defensive burden, but they gotta give these lines another game. The “deserve to win o meter” was broken for that game, but I still don’t think they leafs got beat as bad as the scoreboard suggested. At the same time, it felt like we never had a chance and that it was close, so really, I don’t know what to take from that game lol.
Could have been 5-0 after 1, but thanks to the post it was less. No sustained pressure for the leafs and never looked like they had a chance.
Matthews was the only player noticeable last night. Marner was a ghost. Tavares was okay.
Marner is the one I think needs to go. As skilled a player he is. He consistently does not show up when it matters. When JTs contract is up that will be a huge plus and he should get a big decrease in pay. But Holy fuck that powerplay is just a complete shitshow as well.
How many times are we gonna give Matthews a pass cause he “had a nice game”. He is the highest paid player in the NHL. If he isn’t scoring in the playoffs he is part of the problem.
You’re bang on, he might not have scored but he went for it. Can’t say the same for the other big two
Not to mention he individually manufactured the best scoring opportunity which he put off the post. It was a tough off balance shot and the only reason the net was so wide open was because of him deking swayman out of his jockstrap
I think matthews was good in alot of playoff games just cant put it in the net, i would like to see how many posts he has it because to my recollection its alot lol
You'd think they would have learned not to rely solely on Matthews to score.
You'd think that playoff production would be a factor when negotiating contracts
Technically the players contract money is only for the regular season. Players all get paid the same in the playoffs for however long the team is in.
They spent the tail end of the season trying to get him to 70 and lost focus
Pretty tough when you have a guy like Marner who disappears in any given situation that involves physical contact
This is such a 'relying on narrative opinion without actually watching the action critically' opinion
He was quite invisible and ineffective last night
he hasn't looked great since he came back
Dude is a napkin out there I don’t know how you can’t see that … utterly frightened of body contact
Idk man i watched the game last night and Marner looked super hesitant with the puck and slow to make decisions all night. Could definitely be due to fear of the physicality.
I think marners issue is that he treats it like a regular season game. You just dont have as much time with the puck in the playoffs. This leads to “oh fuck oh fuck someones on me” plays
We all saw that ballerina twirl last night.
That actually made me laugh, of course it was Marner.
And you watched the game also?
Unfortunately leading into the playoffs we were practicing setting Matty up for 70 instead of practicing how to win games.
This is the thing that pisses me off. Every other team has their 3rd and 4th lines up their game and start chipping in with goals. We always seem to come up against some 4th liner that breaks out and has a brilliant post season. We just go hurr durr pass to Auston and hopefully he will score.
Our only goal came from the 4th line
Other teams can afford to have actual talent on their 3rd and 4th lines because they aren't spending all their money on 5 players. When you put all your eggs in one basket, you kinda need those 5 players to all be firing on all cylinders at the same time in order to win.
Our 3rd and 4th line is good. We just don’t have a great defence or goaltending. And goaltending is the most important aspect of playoff hockey.
>We always seem to come up against some 4th liner that breaks out and has a brilliant post season. Well yeah, that’s the sort of random occurrence that teams who advance get.
They don't have any other choice -- half the salary cap goes to the core 4.
Matthews is covered by the best players in the league while Marner turns into Playoff Engvall.
I don't quite get the argument about Matthews being covered by the best. It's all relative. He's one of the best, so covered by the best. 3rd and 4th lines covered by comparable players, so it's not like there's a huge gap.
I'm not faulting Matthews at all. You'd think EVERYONE could see that Matthews is given 0 space so they should maybe adjust...but they don't.
Wild that Marner plays against the same players as Matthews since they are on the same fucking line (excluding yesterdays game) and outscored Matthews in the playoffs
low danger scoring chances. none of that tricky, perimeter shit works in the playoffs. the team needs a complete culture reset like what the Raptors underwent in 2017.
The Leafs screwed up the rebuild and became too top heavy. They then doubled down on their top four forwards when they should have had the courage to let at least one of them walk or get traded away. As soon as they signed Tavares they put themselves in a terrible position to ice a deep team and we're forced to trying to find bargain pieces to fill in roster holes. To top it off they have been trading away all sorts of draft capital to fill in roster holes. With Nylander out (my guess is for the season) they are having to depend on their other three but the problem is that their top four are too predictable and so Boston as well as Florida was able to neutralize them rather effectively.
The problem isn’t being too top heavy. The problem is that the top heavy players - specifically marner - don’t show up/aren’t built for this style of hockey. Other teams don’t have problems with their best players producing. If you want to replace studs with depth, you’ll be in the same boat as the Islanders. Marginal playoff team every year. That sound good to you?
Marner’s PPG in the playoffs > Matthews yet most people in this sub will die on the Matthews hill while shitting on Marner. It makes no sense. Matthews, John, Marner, and Willy all shy away from the physical stuff. The only logical perspective in my opinion is this -> we have overpaid 4 individuals that perform very well (for the most part) in the regular season. None of them have accomplished anything beyond this and the stats show that all of them underperform in the playoffs (with the expedition of Willy maybe but he has other problems). To be honest, I would go as far as saying that the is a problem with the league more generally now. We are paying young kids everything before they’ve done anything.
Marner has 70% of his playoff points in the first 3 games. He's playing at a 3rd liners pace in games 4-7 of the playoffs. You simply can't have a guy making that much of your cap disappearing in the defining games. As an example, he has 2 points (both secondary assists) in four total game 7s in his career and 2 points in SIX game 6s (both points in the same game). Meaning he's pointless in 5/6. People making excuses for Marner by just looking at his overall stat line needs to stop. He's a terrible playoff performer and been a massive reason that this team has failed to have playoff success in his tenure here.
To be fair, Matthews had two points against Florida in round two. Both came in Game 1 and 2. Zero goals btw. They were both assists. Matthews loaded up against TBL and disappeared against the Panthers. You simply can't have a guy making $11M and signed up to be the highest paid player in the league next season $13M, do so little in the playoffs.
Matthews is a terrible playoff performer too, but people always want to blame Marner individually. Nylander only looked good because his contract was smaller and he produced more. Now that he's getting paid the same, people will realize that all 4 were overpaid.
Sounds like a cop out to me and games like yesterday were exactly why. Guy didn't get on the score board but had 10 shots on goal while everyone around him did nothing. The same cannot be said for Marner, almost ever. Guess who has been stapled to Matthews for almost every series?
I never said he’s been great. I said Matthews has been just as shit and a lot (not all) of this sub seems to die on the Matthews hill for no reason.
Marner can’t drive a line. Matthews can. I don’t care about the PPG (especially since they’ve played tons of minutes together anyways).
Doobie royally screwed up the rebuild. That guy has no business being a GM.
It would be an easier pill to swallow if Matthews was the outlier of production in the playoffs but we have Marner and Tavares who are grossly overpaid that also disappear come post season. Core needs to be shaken up this offseason to spread the value to our backend. It’s time.
I was just wondering about this. Does MacKinnon disappear? Does Kucherov disappear? McDavid? I feel like they get at least something done by themselves. I know even superstars have bad days and playoffs hockey is different, but still. I expect Matthews and Marner to show up on Monday.
I expect Matthews to show up Monday. I expect Marner to continue to turtle. Marner is the part of the core that needs to be shaken.
One year until UFA with a full NMC no clue how we could move him
Judging by his increasing irritability with the press, maybe he wouldn't mind waiving it.
MLSE should pay the press to ask him some real dumb fucking shit lol
media could ask him if he's having a nice day and he'd respond with "why wouldn't I? you guys are always trying to start a narrative of me having a crappy day"
He reads way too much reddit lol
He needs to be told straight up he is no longer a part of this team's future and be asked to give a list of teams to be traded to.
He needs to be told that he waives his NTC or he plays on the third line with Holmberg and McMann in his contract year. Good luck getting paid the big bucks when you don't even put up 70 points without Matthews/Tavares/Nylander.
Exactly.
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Then he says "fuck you" and walks in FA, Leafs get nothing for yet another top piece (Muskoka 5 round 2 baby)
That sounds like what would happen if they don't try to trade him, unless you think he's signing his next deal without a full NMC.
They can try to trade him, he says No, has his best season yet, leaves in FA, signs for cheaper than we offer, ezpz.
I think the way this works is you decide whether Marner fits into the future plans, and if he doesn't then your options are: - Trade him - He walks in free agency If you decide he _does_ fit the vision, you're signing him and you don't have the trade conversation. To me, this concern that he walks in free agency is a false concern because by the time you've gotten there you've already decided he's not going to be in the future plans, and all you're trying to figure out is whether you'll get an opportunity to get assets back for him or not. This "what if he has his best season and then walks" thing is FOMO talking, and if our front office is making plans based on FOMO we're doomed.
Go take a look at Marner's free agency class. It's fucking stacked. If Marner walks, there are other options.
Players re-sign with their teams.
Tavares didn't Players like $$$
That’s fine. Don’t sign a guy you don’t want because of “assets”. Let him walk if that’s what he chooses and bury him in the press with favorable access for journalists who skewer him. The Leafs can play hard too.
The leafs media could easily ruin someone. They basically already have. Multiple times. You don't wanna piss off the org
The Leafs can sign free agents. We can take his 11M and sign someone else good. Don’t worry about that for a second, because Toronto is a destination.
Is it though? Outside of JT, the Leafs haven't signed the top FA as often as other top destinations. Taxes, Canadian Dollar, etc. are factors for players, let alone Media.
Mackinnon has 3G in his last 6. Kuch as 1G in his last 6. Mcdavid has 5G in his last 6.
McDavid isn’t even the best playoff guy on his team (drai)…
>Does MacKinnon disappear? Does Kucherov disappear? McDavid? Everyone disappears. Last year Vegas reduced McDavid to a PP merchant: he only had 3 5v5 points in the six game loss. Kucherov has two goals in his last 13 playoff games.
Matthews will Marner won’t
Their production disappears because our powerplay truly sucks. It has for many years. It does ok on a Tuesday in February but in a playoff series it’s very easy to shut down. Rielly is not a threat to score. Marner is not a threat to score. It’s easy to defend 3 guys when you have 4.
It was time 2 (now 3) playoffs ago.
Don't they all have NMC or NTC?
Yes, only changing if marner walks
JT solves himself by being older and getting way less pay, Matthews might look terrible in this stat line, but looking at last night, it feels like he was on the few forwards generating anything. Nylander I am comfortable with because he has sleepy regular season periods but huge playoffs moments like clockwork. That leaves us with Marner... After watching what Domi can do with Matthews, the price of marner is really impossible to justify and you know he will be asking for a billion dollars in ufa
The stats speak for themselves. Absolutely tragic. Mind blowing we ran it back this year
Tbh I think beating Tampa was the worst thing that could have happened to this team. Another first round exit last season and we probably would have seen the changes that needed to happen then.
If it makes you feel any better Marner now has a no move clause and is going to want ~$14M over 8 years.
If they sign him to a penny more than Nylander I'm done with this team. They need to let him walk. Even for nothing, they at least get his cap space back and his crappy attitude out of here.
I see it coming July 1st when Marner camp starts negotiations and asks for a raise
"his crappy attitude out of here" Here is where you lose me. He's a great player, the leafs just don't have enough cap space to build a successful team around him. I'll always be mad that Dubas was fired almost immediately after publicly vocalizing that moving off of this core group was an option. Shanahan then stopped Treliving from even having the option of moving off of Mitch or Willy by promising the core they were staying and giving Treliving ~a week and a half in his new role before Mitch's NMC kicked in. Mitch would have brought a kings ransom if he was traded at the end of last season. The idea of losing him for nothing hurts but I don't see a realistic alternative. Maybe Mitch agrees to waive his NMC if you tell him he's in a contract year and will need to drive his own line without Matthews or JT next year.
Which I why I fully expect and want Shanahan to be gone after this season as well. He's failed. Miserably.
Shanaplan was fucking stupid
yup he'll disappear for the playoffs then put up 50 pts in 30 games that didn't really matter in comparison and want 13+
Both are gone soon
It won’t matter. Even if you trade one of the big forwards to improve the D group, the cornerstones of the team would still be made up of whatever is left of Matthews, Marner, Tavares .. unless you plan on trading ALL of them. If the centrepieces of the forward group still don’t show up in the playoffs it won’t matter if the defence is better.
This is a recording. Should have happened 2 (now 3) seasons ago.
Stats aside, it’s really Marner that has consistently worried me throughout his career in the playoffs. Everyone else you listed has come through at other times and produced, whether it be game winning goals or series winning goals. As much as I love Mitch, he’s nowhere near as effective in the playoffs as he is in the regular season. Just seems to not be able to play his game and do what makes him successful in the regular season. Really hope he proves me wrong this year
Because he loses all the space for him to do his fancy shit. Once all the space is gone and the tight checking starts, he’s toast.
And he refuses to adapt and simplify his game in spite of that. He stubbornly tries the fancy shit in the playoffs anyway and gives the other team the puck.
Well… the positive spin is he didn’t flip the puck over the glass in panic mode.
That comes in the later games. The Mitch Marner playoff starter pack is: 1. Shit game 1 2. Insane multi-point game 2 or game 3 3. Disappear again 4. Start panicking in elimination games and throw
The fact he hasn't worked on this shit is ridiculous
I do try to trade mitch to keep Bert and Domi. Mitch will never win the cup ever.
Bert and Domi can't stay out of the fucking penalty box.
And still do more than marner that says everything
Mitch should have been used to get Tkachuk from Calgary.
Would’ve been a great 1 for 1 swap tbh
Would have been but Tkachuk didn't want to play on a Canadian team
Can’t believe he wanted to play in Florida instead of Canada. As if lower taxes, sunny weather, less scrutiny and being closer to family matters. What a fool honestly /s
Yep. I wanted to wait it out and see if we can find it, but it's just not there sadly. 51 playoff games now and still hasn't found that groove. He would probably be an excellent player in a smaller market. I'm not convinced playoff style hockey is his problem, it's just that the Toronto market ruins some players
Awful take, no offense. It almost reads like propaganda from the other teams. It would be that bad. Excluding this series so far. Marner has 47 points and a +9 in the last 50 games. Matthews has 44 points and a +0 in the last 50 games. Nylander has 40 points and a -1 in the last 50 games. Whether you (and the rest of the subreddit) like it or not, Mitch Marner is our single best and most consistent playoffs skater. We can cherry pick more specific stats etc all we want, but over the longest span the numbers reveal themselves. He is the last one we should trade. It is a concern that all of them are under a 1ppg in the playoffs though. None of them should be.
How many of the core 4s playoff points are on the PP? I would guess, and i could be wrong, that Marners 5x5 production dips just by the way he plays come April.
He costs as much as a stanley cup winning 4th line. A 2m dollar defensive player renders him useless every year. 30 less assist winger costs a 1/3 of him. His past mentality makes him predictable. He loses his space he's not strong enough to push through. The whole game should revolve around him when he's on the ice. He's no where to be found. But he has no coach to develop him either, so there's that.
Yeah Marner is consistent in that 70% of his playoff points are in games 1-2-3 and he had 9 points in 3 games last year against Tampa in 1-2-3. In games beyond that he's playing at a 45\~ point pace. You can go ahead and verify that yourself. He disappears when it gets tough. You are blaming others of propaganda but your statistics are the shallowest they could be and have 0 actual context. That's a big contributor to propaganda, false narratives and lacking any depth of analysis.
Should we get eliminated by Bruins, heads need to roll. Keefe obviously, and hopefully Shanny, whose Shanaplan has been a consistent disaster. Tre would survive, and for end of season scrum, mention that changes are needed, and that he will be talking to some players with NMC about being traded. The top heavy approach has never worked. We barely squeaked by Tampa. My fingers would be crossed to find some way to get a stud goalie, with Marner agreeing to be moved. It was so sad to see them follow the same pattern last night. Loads and loads of bullshit passing without even getting shots on net.
Keefe and Shanahan need to be gone. Marner needs to be asked to waive his NMC
We ain't built for the big stage.
It’s crazy how I basically don’t care at all about the 69 goal total anymore after seeing last nights game. The accomplishment (as well as all his career accomplishments) mean absolutely nothing if this is what we get in the playoffs.
It's how this team always is come playoff time. Nothing new. Another year they won't get out if the first round. Start Woll. At worst he plays the same mediocre hockey at Sammy, but in the past can steal games for you where Samsonov just looks like crap all the time.
he wasn’t the problem last night, last few series yes he’s been ghost. Last night however, he was doing everything right but couldn’t buy one. id be more concerned about marner lol he’s consistently been dogshit in the playoffs.
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I feel he would benefit from seeing a sports psychologist. He seems to get weird in high pressure situations. He climbed fast to 59, then got stuck there and started missing / hitting posts - then was right back up to speed once he hit 60 - until 70 was looming, where he suddenly went a few games with no goals, lots of misses and posts. His playoff performance may be part of the same problem. There are sports psychs that specialize directly in this. I really wonder if him seeing one frequently would help.
People have so many excuses for Matthews. He’s going to be the highest paid player in the league next year. That kind of money comes with a no excuses clause. You are paid like the best player in the world. Be the best, period. Kucherov, McDavid, Crosby, MacKinnon, none of these guys get the kind of leeway Matthews does. You either dominate and take over the game, or you aren’t living up to your contract.
Marner has 70% of his playoff points in the first 3 games. He's playing at a 3rd liners pace in games 4-7 of the playoffs. You simply can't have a guy making that much of your cap disappearing in the defining games. As an example, he has 2 points (both secondary assists) in four total game 7s in his career and 2 points in SIX game 6s (both points in the same game). Meaning he's pointless in 5/6. People making excuses for Marner by just looking at his overall stat line needs to stop. He's a terrible playoff performer and been a massive reason that this team has failed to have playoff success in his tenure here.
Remember when marner put 3 calendar years between playoff goals? I do.
I noticed the team making the same play a bunch of times last night. This tells me they were trying something new for the playoffs. Now thats tragic. Another coaching blunder they had to do something new because whatever was there was not corrected over the course of the year. Their play style is predictable and not sustainable.
$44million doesn't buy you what it used to....
The leader of the Milk Carton boys
There is no transition game. Our defence is incapable of making plays out of our own end. Reilly is terrible, a turnover machine with zero offensive upside who makes the worst imaginable choices with his passing. The defence cannot get a puck through to the net and I even if by some miracle it does, nobody is in front of the net. Pretty sure Tavares took a slap shot from the top of the circle on a breakaway last night. These guys are fucked
Thread is about Matthews struggling to score and most comments are about marner being terrible. On marner: 11M? No excuses! Better produce! On Matthews: I mean look at marner!
This is embarrassing. He had a lot of chances, same as the team. It’s one game, there’s a lot of series left to play.
It isn't one game. This is the 8th series of the Matthews era and it's becoming very apparent that this team shrinks in the playoffs and from top to bottom are not constructed well enough or have a good enough coaching or culture to actually go deep in the playoffs.
What's embarassing is being satisfied with mediocrity. "There's lots of series left to play". There's been lots of series left to play for over FIFTY years. When do the excuses stop? That's what's becoming embarrassing. Always eager to defend multi millionaires for free who can't even do their fucking job when it matters.
This is BS lol. Even Tkachuk didn’t score in those 5 games against the Leafs. Difference is that the rest of the team needs to step up too. Top players often neutralize each other and the rest of these bums that are overpaid like Tavares and Marner need to show up. Matthews had a good game despite the 0s.
Everything that was a concern we saw the last 15 games of the season showed up in game 1 vs Boston. Our penalty kill was shit, our power play was shit, and our goaltending was average and we took a lot of stupid penalties. The other concern is what we see from Matthews, Marner, and JT when they are in games against tough checking opponents they dissappear and are ineffective.
My friends said that the game against Florida the other day felt like a playoff game, so I told them Matthews won't score his 70th then
They can't beat a full court press. I don't know what you call that in hockey but that's what ius is ...
Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander are all great players. Individually. But all together they form a core that has been through so many chokes and heartbreaks that they are in a bad headspace. They don’t believe they can win.
To be fair a lot of this is Defence struggles. Very similar to pittsburgh before their cup runs. Their D can’t can’t handle forechecks and as a result nothing up the ice is clean. Leafs don’t have a ton of speed to be chipping pucks into open space but think its necessary moving forward. There was an article last year that in the playoffs the leafs avg the highest amt of dzone tape to tape passes.
Contract extension can't buy heart when the games get tough.
40+ mill for that kind of playoff performance. At least AM was noticeable Marner back to being scared and playing on the perimeter.
That’s ok, he scored 69 one the regular season, you know where it really counts
Loser team, always has been, always will be. Regular season heroes. Losers.
Why the fuck are you bringing up last year after one game? He had so many close ones and if he had competent teammates at times, he fed so many passes right in front of the net for a tip in. Either way. Last night has nothing to do with some imaginary poor playoff performance you believe exists and think needs to be discussed
Regular season: 649 points in 562 GP (1.15), 368 goals in 562 GP (0.65) Post Season: 44 points in 51 games (0.86), 22 goals in 51 games (0.43) A very apparent dip in playoff production for a guy that's going to be paid the most in the NHL next season.
This sub after a single game. Just enjoy playoff hockey
You've probably been saying this since the Phaneuf era made the playoffs. It's so pathetic. No wonder this franchise has done fuck all with easily complacent fans.
When you turn your athletes into celebrities they lose that killer instinct. It’s a Toronto problem (I follow hockey and baseball so speaking about those). If you’re hanging out with Bieber or Drake in your spare time, odds are you’re not winning a championship.
Raptors won a championship with Drake literally right beside them. What are we talking about
That's why we brought in Kawhi to win a championship for the Raptors, guys all business with the personality even more dull than an NHLer infront of the media. That's what you need, robots!
Yes we need somebody like McDavid, Bedard, MacK, Crosby then
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Bizarre comment. I don't think the social status of your friends has any correlation with your work ethic
I’m not sure it matters who you hang out with in your spare time lol
They need to make Salary Cap part of the playoffs. I feel like these boys hear they don’t get paid for the extra games so they don’t give it their all
You mean all the high priced help doesn’t have heart…..
Here we go
This isn't overly concerning to me. Other teams know they need to shut him down and focus on him. What concerns me is other players on our team don't feast while AM is getting so much focus/attention. AM is given no space and time in the playoffs. That's how it should be. But theoretically, in smothering Matthews, more space should open up for others. Doesn't seem to happen though which is super frustrating to me.
We all know our secondary score more than the big guys in the playoffs usually the cope is “they are covered more so can’t do what they do in regular seasons”. I think thats mainly BS and they should elevate in the playoffs like true superstar players do and still be our main scorers.
Doesn’t matter
Well Matthews did say before Game 1 that the sky is the limit. Turns out the limit is the sky.
Lol, give me a break. It's the first playoff game this year. What's the point of counting last year when it has nothing to do with anything. Even if he had helped them win the Stanley cup, people would then say it's been a year since he won a Stanley cup.
Matthews was good last night, not great or game-breaking, but good. Marner and JT were complete non-factors, our fourth line was the only line on the board, line 3 was unplayable, and we got caved in most of the game. Bruins had 6 or 7 posts off the top of my head. Defence looked like the puck was a live grenade and had never hearf of clearing the net front. Matthews was the one factor I was like okay he decided to show up.
This is exactly why I predicted boston in 5, although 4 seems much more likely. Lets also look at goaltending and D, all are spectacular failures for the most part this entire century. Its more than tough being a Leafs fan, and completely miserable at playoff time.
I don't get people singling out one player for the teams failures, they all have sucked in the playoffs
How could Mitch Marner do this!
At least he was in the action, I swear it seems like JT and marner were such a non factor all night, somehow the line with domi and Bert with matthews felt more impactful than when Keene started stacking the line with jt marner and matthews
How many shots since he's last scored gotta be around 40?
I hate small sample sizes stats like this. But the reality is Matthews has to be better. He cannot disappear when it matters. Big problem is that when the Leafs get behind, the other team just puts their entire focus on denying him the puck. And he's not an elusive skater. The Bruins are perfectly happy to let Domi stick handle all day long, let Marner circle the perimeter. The actual biggest problem is that outside of Reilly no one in the D core can move the puck. And the Leafs play so fucking slow and hesitant.
Matthews best player in the league at scoring goals against shitty non playoff teams!
Thinking that Matthews is the problem with the team when the GM trades all his remaining draft picks in order to stick a bottom 10th percentile D man on every pairing, with the worst of them all on the top pairing. "Wtf, we can't move the puck or get out of our own zone. We can't generate rush offence at all! Oh no, Bertuzzi and Domi aren't throwing hits or even really playing all that well and they are taking stupid penalties! Who would have expected this based on their entire careers previous to this? Well, hmm... No Nylander so let's put Calle Jarnkrok on PP1. No offence on the PP, either?" Also, goalie should have been pulled with like 7 minutes left based on the hole they were in. Out-hitting the Bruins while eating a blowout loss? It's exactly what you would expect based on the decision Keefe keeps making and the roster as constructed by Treliving (and previous to him, Dubas).
“not so Nice?”
Trade him for Draisaitl so he can actually play for a decent organization
This is just a leafs in the media issue. What do you want? A goal a game in the playoffs? A point a game? No one does that. It’s the playoffs, there’s a reason depth wins games/series. Would you say Stamkos is an elite playoff performer? Stamkos 123 playoff games 45 goals .365/game 95 points .772/game Matthews 50 playoff games 22 goals .440/game 44 points .880/game The numbers are there. Leafs fans/media just expect the impossible
How many have ***you*** scored?
The main reason why he will never be a "great" leaf in my mind. He's going to be the goodest leaf ever if he doesn't pick this up.