I think Marner's greatest and most damning critics are not TERBites, or analysts or coaching staff or bloggers or professional writers. but they are the ones who sit beside him on the bench. When they call him out during a game and his reaction is to throw a tantrum, and then later when he doesn't get the message and still coasts up the ice and lets the series winning scorer blow right by him (and Marner has decent speed), that was it for me. I was a fan of his and his talent but now I want him gone. They can get someone a little less talented but who actually tries and for a lot less money. Players can have bad days and prolonged slumps and bad luck, but there is absolutely ZERO EXCUSE for a lack of effort, especially in the playoffs. Guaranteed his weak play had a negative impact not just on the ice but also on the team at large and the team chemistry.
He showed us who he really is and we should believe him. And with all due respect you smuddan, I think you should believe him as well.
This is just beating a dead horse trying to debate who’s more responsible for the series losing goal but since you brought it up again, I’ll reluctantly oblige.
Kelly Hrudy, the former nhl goalie and the expert who you liked to quote to support your points of view, made the analysis that Samsonov should have gone out to play the dump in and he was sure that Samsonov would have gotten to the puck first. My not so professional view was that Rielly the d man should never have been beaten so cleanly on a dump in on his side. Marner got caught looking at the puck carrier. All three players deserve to be held responsible but Marner got singled out.
No doubt it was a bad playoff for Marner, and anytime a player plays bad it’s so easy to accuse him of a lack of effort. When Nylander had his bad days, i don’t think I had ever read any criticism from you of a lack of effort. Did Marner play bad because he was not putting out the effort ? I don’t think so and this is where you and I will agree to disagree.
There are times players would get praised for showing emotions, often interpreted as “ a desire to win”, but other times like in this case, haters would use that to criticize. There was some kind of disagreement among Matthews, Marner and Nylander as we all saw, and it wasn’t the first time that had happened among teammates, but but what evidence do you have that “ he was called out” by those sitting on the bench ? Did you hear what exactly the conversations were ? Please enlighten me if you have inside Information.