How does this have anything to do with underperforming as an individual and as a team in the playoffs for 9yrs? What an absolutely retconned narrative. That may have been the final nail in the coffin but the monsters in their heads quote by Paul MacLean was very real and I wouldn't be surprised if that was pointed toward Marner more than anyone else.
I hate to say he cared too much but he kinda did. And to a large extent the players did that to themselves. If they go to the conference finals even once we're probably not having this conversation. Now he's free from all that in a market that couldn't care less.
I'm not sure how much it had to do with his on ice performance. But I doubt it was a big factor.
I think it was a big factor in deciding where he wanted to continue his career. He probably opted for a gated community around Vegas.
But the "underperformance" claim isn't that accurate or simple. How important are MacKinnon's points in games 5-7 in the Vegas series? The premise that games 1-4 are not important has been bluntly proven wrong in this series,
A little anecdote from before my time: Rocket Richard was known as a great goal scorer for the Habs. in '49-50, he outscored Gordie Howe by 8 goals. 43 goals in 70 games. Playoffs came and he "underperformed". The Rangers put a "shadow" on him - a Finnish Canadian named Pentti Lund who shut Richard down holding him to 1 goal and 1 assist and the Rangers won the series 4-1. Hockey history tells us Richard was a heck of a player but things could happen to cause 'underformance'
One that I witnessed was Bobby Hull. In '65-66, he scored record setting 54 goals in 65 games. 22 more goals than 2nd place Mahovlich and 19 more points than 2nd place Makita. He was on top of the hockey world. Detroit put Bugsy Watson, a dman, as Hull's shadow. Held him to 2 goals, 2 Assists - more than halving his goal and reducing his points production. Chicago lost to the Wings in 6 games.I guess Bobby 'underperformed' ...
Nathan MacKinnon, got banged up on a shot block but only put up 2 assists, -2 in four games against Vegas. I guess he too 'underperformed'. But at least his cherry picked stats in games 5-7 are unblemished.
Try to extend that reasoning to our Leafs.
Matthews and Marner are a heck of a pair.
Nylander & Tavares can score some but they tend to give up more than they get at even strength. So teams don't have to devote too much effort to them.
The Leafs 3rd and 4th lines tended to be weaker due to the cap imbalance.
Put the shadow/checking line (which may not be the 3rd line) on Matthews-Marner and the Leafs path to victory gets really tough.
Howe & Richard had deeper teams.
Now, we seem to have a new breed ot team in Vegas: a team that can role 3 or 4 lines who are all very good defensively - capable of collectively smothering a powerhouse like the Avs. Hard to just shadow Marner when they have two other lines that can hurt.
To me, Marner is performing fairly similar to how he always has. He's got more open ice because the other lines are keeping teams honest.
So what is a contending team going to do?
We may be rethinking the game this summer.
Marner is just doing what he's done since he was a kid.
