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R1, G1: sens @ Maple Leafs - Apr. 20th, 7:00pm - SN, Fan 590

Those things feel different than Matthews smirking while three Lightning players are tugging and pulling at him. It's still not getting dragging into stupid thing but its also the team picking when to be dirty.
 
I think the best way to avoid the previously common-place Marner power failure in games 5-7 is to just win the series in 4.
I've been through that stat cherry picking argument before.
You don't get games 5-7 if you don't score in games 1-4. I can't think of any NHL coaches that would say otherwise. Think Travis Green is telling the Senators "It's ok boys. Games 1-4 don't matter. Just gear up for games 5-7!!" ?
There is no game 5 against the Panthers if Marner doesn't score and assist on the only two goals the Leafs got to win game 4.
That is not a hard concept to grasp. Most people and nearly everyone in the NHL get it.

Something someone like Nylander and media observers have yet to embrace or figure out: the game is played in both ends of the ice.
Even when Marner doesn't score (and even though he scores more than any other Leaf in the playoffs and the regular season), he contributes defensively at the other end of the ice - more than most if not all of the Leafs forwards. His career playoff +/- is way ahead of all the other Leafs forwards. With their careers on the line, his coaches (Babcock, Keefe, Berube - two of them Cup winners) give him more ice time than any other forward. In the Four Nations Cup, Cup winning coach Cooper gave Marner the 3rd most ice time among the Canadian forwards only behind McDavid & MacKinnon. Do you think they all suddenly got stupid and forgot the game is played in both ends of the ice? Part of Coopers reasoning for putting Marner with McDavid was to help defensively. Or do you think they felt that they should just put an inferior player out more "to keep things close"?

To only consider Marner's offensive contributions is like seeing without depth perception - with only one eye on the easy to read stats that are oblivious to the other side of the game. I'm not buying that nonsense. Neither have his NHL coaches with their jobs or reputations on the line.
 
RE: Grieg not facing supplemental discipline (and even downgrading from 5 to 2)

It's all about whether the infraction was a part of a hockey play.

Domi got tagged for an unsportsmanlike penalty towards the end of the season for bee-lining to fight Guhle after he decked Tavares in open ice. The refs explained they had to call that because he didn't try to make a hockey play first to trigger the engagement legitimately.

Rielly's suspension was flagged as 'not a hockey play' (game was over) and was clearly retribution for some slight.

Grieg was just bracing for Tavares' hit and got his stick high. On purpose or otherwise, that's still in the course of a hockey play. He's a good agitator and generally causes a ruckus within these bounds.
 
I've been through that stat cherry picking argument before.
You don't get games 5-7 if you don't score in games 1-4. I can't think of any NHL coaches that would say otherwise. Think Travis Green is telling the Senators "It's ok boys. Games 1-4 don't matter. Just gear up for games 5-7!!" ?
There is no game 5 against the Panthers if Marner doesn't score and assist on the only two goals the Leafs got to win game 4.
That is not a hard concept to grasp. Most people and nearly everyone in the NHL get it.

Something someone like Nylander and media observers have yet to embrace or figure out: the game is played in both ends of the ice.
Even when Marner doesn't score (and even though he scores more than any other Leaf in the playoffs and the regular season), he contributes defensively at the other end of the ice - more than most if not all of the Leafs forwards. His career playoff +/- is way ahead of all the other Leafs forwards. With their careers on the line, his coaches (Babcock, Keefe, Berube - two of them Cup winners) give him more ice time than any other forward. In the Four Nations Cup, Cup winning coach Cooper gave Marner the 3rd most ice time among the Canadian forwards only behind McDavid & MacKinnon. Do you think they all suddenly got stupid and forgot the game is played in both ends of the ice? Part of Coopers reasoning for putting Marner with McDavid was to help defensively. Or do you think they felt that they should just put an inferior player out more "to keep things close"?

To only consider Marner's offensive contributions is like seeing without depth perception - with only one eye on the easy to read stats that are oblivious to the other side of the game. I'm not buying that nonsense. Neither have his NHL coaches with their jobs or reputations on the line.


I thoroughly enjoy your posts about Marner as they very much put across what I also feel, but you manage to do so in a much more eloquent way.

I just think we should have been and should do whatever it takes to make him a career Leafs. I fear a lot of people won’t realise what they’ve got til it’s gone if he were to play elsewhere.
 
I've been through that stat cherry picking argument before.

Aside from this clearly being a joke, the argument to trade Marner (for me) has never been about whether he is a good/great player or not, and certainly not a question of his bona fides on defense (unicorn-level when paired with his other capabilities).

It's the dollar ask vs the offense when the chips are down ratio. Like it or not, the salary cap environment means teams should really only pay up for goals, and in those previous series, Marner and to a similar extent Matthews (because they were attached at the hip), were shut down very hard by cheap-o scrubs. Other 11-12M players on other teams were dragging their teams through, while Marner and Matthews were playing like Phillip Danault (who they also got shut down by).

Matthews re-signed without fuss as he wanted to be here. Marner was and still is the biggest chip on the board if the organization needed to make a drastic personnel change; coupled with his camp's history of negotiation tactics, there is ample reason to explore options if needed.

I have more confidence now, as the season has progressed, that the new Leafs offensive mentality will hold them in good stead and our Core 4, now Fab 5, will not be completely stymied.
 
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