After a disappointing 6-3 loss against the Carolina Hurricanes, blowing a 2-0 lead, the Toronto Maple Leafs were dealt another poor outing with a 3-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. It was an unacceptable effort all around as it was shades of a game last year, where the Detroit Red Wings arrived late and the Maple Leafs didn’t take advantage of the situation.
History repeated itself with the loss as the Canucks arrived later than expected and were the better team. While many weren’t happy with the result, fans weren’t also happy with forward Mitch Marner’s post game comment where he liked the team’s effort. One could tell that the effort level, compete and energy was non-existent and Marner was oblivious to the fact with his words.
Needless to say, Marner can’t sugar-coat his team’s performance after a poor loss and needs to show some honesty. Not the optimism he thinks everyone wants to hear.
Marner Needs to Be Realistic
If you weren’t aware of what Marner said addressing his team’s play, it was a positive assessment despite the team not showing up and being at their best.
“I liked it. I thought we played well, I really did,” Marner said according to Toronto Sun’s Terry Koshan. “The last couple of games, we’ve been giving up plays to teams that aren’t missing on them.”
The Maple Leafs, in fact, didn’t play well. Just like against the Hurricanes where the top line was ineffective and Marner was on for six goals in all situations. Against the Canucks, they allowed the opening goal of a period twice, were flat footed in their own zone, lost puck battles, didn’t generate enough quality chances and the power play was abysmal once again. They were outplayed in key areas on the ice and even though it was a low event game, there was hardly any push back. When Marner needed to be realistic with his assessment, he wasn’t.
Defenseman Chris Tanev, on the other hand, was. He stated, “Not good enough. They outworked us, outcompeted us. That’s why they won.”
Head coach Craig Berube said there was a lack of “life and energy”. Why are Tanev and Berube being accurate with their evaluation and not Marner, one of the team’s leaders?
There’s nothing wrong in showing optimism with a team’s play in a loss if there were positives to take from it. However, this isn’t the case, especially on the power play…
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