Speculation: Are Matthews and Marner Choke Artists in Playoffs?

[sparxx87]

Danault is selke comptention? Wow

I don’t know whether he is or not, but the poster made that claim to stress Danault as one of the best defensive forwards in the league. This is true regardless of Selke votes.

 

[Blowfish]

I remember the days Babcock under played Marner and Matthews ... the fanbase was extremely frustrated.

Maybe just maybe he was grooming them to be elite? wanting more? hungry? Maybe he saw something none of us saw from the sidelines.

 

[bodechek]

Five years; two different coaches and against four different teams but the same result. Neither of the showed up when it mattered the most, the only player to improve in playoff performance was Nylander. We keep hearing lessons learned, but after five years, when do you start applying these so called lessons that you have learned? Have they actually learned at all? These players are in their twenties, not some young rookie in their teens, so it is fair to say that they have choked when the team really needed them the most.

 

[TakeTheBody]

If Matthews wins the Lady Byng he will never realize his potential. Being a gentleman is fine. Being one in a sport as competitive as hockey? No thanks. Time to leverage that bigger body of his, which he has more and more. He reminds me of OV as a younger player. OV became a better player when he played as a prick. Hitting people. Hoping #34 does the same.

 

[Anthrax442]

If Matthews wins the Lady Byng he will never realize his potential. Being a gentleman is fine. Being one in a sport as competitive as hockey? No thanks. Time to leverage that bigger body of his, which he has more and more. He reminds me of OV as a younger player. OV became a better player when he played as a prick. Hitting people. Hoping #34 does the same.

Mogilny won. He was fully realized.

 

[leaffaninvancouver]

Matthews is not, Marner has been very underwhelming in the playoffs. I don’t think it’s entirely his fault though, he gets bullied because the referees refuse to call the game.

Frankly I’m sick of this double standard, either call the regular season like the playoffs or start calling infractions in the post season.

No more of this two different set of rules.

 

[Stephen]

If Matthews wins the Lady Byng he will never realize his potential. Being a gentleman is fine. Being one in a sport as competitive as hockey? No thanks. Time to leverage that bigger body of his, which he has more and more. He reminds me of OV as a younger player. OV became a better player when he played as a prick. Hitting people. Hoping #34 does the same.

Nathan Mackinnon won it last year...

 

[Mickey Marner]

MacKinnon won the Byng last year and he's probably the most competitive guy in the league.

This team needs to stop treating these guys like kids that still have Flintstones on their band-aids. They're adults now and that must come with the appropriate amount of responsibility. They want superstar money, fine, I want a superstar performance. No exceptions. Winners overcome adversity, losers make excuses.

 

[Notsince67]

Matthews is not, Marner has been very underwhelming in the playoffs. I don’t think it’s entirely his fault though, he gets bullied because the referees refuse to call the game.

Frankly I’m sick of this double standard, either call the regular season like the playoffs or start calling infractions in the post season.

No more of this two different set of rules.

Why dont you check Matthew's shooting percentage. 2.86%.
That is either
A. A choke
B. A bad coaching strategy to have him shoot at every opportunity.

 

[leaffaninvancouver]

Why dont you check Matthew's shooting percentage. 2.86%.
That is either
A. A choke
B. A bad coaching strategy to have him shoot at every opportunity.

Matthews has had two bad post seasons, this one and the first one against Boston. Apart from those he was good against Washington, Boston the second time and Columbus. Marner on the other hand only really has a good series against Boston the first time and he was okay against Columbus.

This last series Marner was awful, he was pushed off the puck and plays constantly died on his stick. Matthews looked like Matthews, but Marner looked like trash.

 

[Mickey Marner]

Why dont you check Matthew's shooting percentage. 2.86%.
That is either
A. A choke
B. A bad coaching strategy to have him shoot at every opportunity.

C. Both

Keefe's strategy of circling the puck around the perimeter like a valance electron is obviously garbage, but Matthews doesn't ever take charge and make the most of his opportunities either.

Lots of blame to go around, no need to limit ourselves with false dichotomies when assigning it.

 

[Menzinger]

Nathan Mackinnon won it last year...

Barkov, Datsyuk have won it even Gretzky.

Never got the idea that the award was a negative thing

 

[BrannigansLaw]

Not only are they choke artists, they are biggest choke artists I have ever seen given their ridiculous talent. You almost couldn’t choke harder than these two if you tried.

 

[Stephen]

Barkov, Datsyuk have won it even Gretzky.

Never got the idea that the award was a negative thing

Maybe not an award to chest thump on a message board between fans but not a negative at all.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

I get that there's sample size and all that, but their numbers in do or die games are putrid. So I'd have to say yes.

 

[koyvoo]

Matthews has had two bad post seasons, this one and the first one against Boston. Apart from those he was good against Washington, Boston the second time and Columbus. Marner on the other hand only really has a good series against Boston the first time and he was okay against Columbus.

This last series Marner was awful, he was pushed off the puck and plays constantly died on his stick. Matthews looked like Matthews, but Marner looked like trash.

Matthews was good (not anywhere near his standards and abilities though) in games 2-4. Once they started the pushback down 3-1, Matthews layed down, just like most of the roster.

People saying Matthews was good in some stretches/series would be more accurate if stated in hat he wasn’t putrid in those instances. I agree, he was better and looked more engaged than Marner. Big deal. Is that the barometer? Marner’s performance?

We ate five post seasons in, and sure, in some stretches he wasn’t purely awful, but he has not yet played to his standards and abilities consistently. Not even close. And, anytime any of the series have come to crunch time, he has been putrid. His overall playoff numbers are bad enough, if you break them down to games 5,6,7 in series’ they’ve pathetic. If you break them down to elimination games for either team, they are pathetic.

If you’re gonna call out one for being a gutless faker, call out both, because they both are.

 

[Funk21]

Matthews is not, Marner has been very underwhelming in the playoffs. I don’t think it’s entirely his fault though, he gets bullied because the referees refuse to call the game.

Frankly I’m sick of this double standard, either call the regular season like the playoffs or start calling infractions in the post season.

No more of this two different set of rules.

while we did get jobbed later in the series the Habs got screwed royally through the first three games.

Matthews and Marner simply need to be better and start throwing a few when teams pull the kinda crap the Habs were doing. I get you want the power play but they need to send a message.

 

[Stigma]

It's funny, yesterday I watched Beauviller jump and slide, on his stomach, across the blue line to negate an offside. It's these simple things that tell me that the person is giving everything they've got to win. I don't even need a massive hit from M and M. Sometimes something as simple as what Beauviller did shows me the intensity that I want to see.

 

[Dough72]

Frankly I’m sick of this double standard, either call the regular season like the playoffs or start calling infractions in the post season.

No more of this two different set of rules.

it's not perfect but I think it's the only solution to keep the NHL from going full pond-hockey. The NHL playoffs are glorious and I'm glad they kept real hockey alive for newer fans to experience because you don't get that kind of emotion and intensity from pond hockey. Unfortunately they can't have body-checking over an 82 game season anymore because they made their sport too fast with constant "improvements" to jet-ice and jet-skates. It's like tennis where they "improved" the rackets from wood to graphite and now their sport is all about service aces instead of rallies. But unless the owners dial it back on the jet-ice, which would improve the sport in a whole list of ways beyond body checking, I think this is the best we can hope for

 

[BodaciousBeefBazooka]

Statistics and numbers don't lie. Based off that, hell ya they are. However you want to look at it its crystal clear.

 

[Riellyfan04]

I remember the days Babcock under played Marner and Matthews ... the fanbase was extremely frustrated.

Maybe just maybe he was grooming them to be elite? wanting more? hungry? Maybe he saw something none of us saw from the sidelines.

This fan base is a joke. They will always attack coaches, gms, presidents. I laugh at people who say toronto media is bad, nope, its the fan base thats bad. We literally throw everyone under the bus. If matthews doesnt resign here, we all gotta remmeber its cause of stupid fan base always complaining about every little thing. Yes we should be frustrated at their play this playoff but to just throw our top players under the bus who arent even at their prime yet is a joke and other nhl players see and dont want to come here.

 

[17 Clark]

I remember the days Babcock under played Marner and Matthews ... the fanbase was extremely frustrated.

Maybe just maybe he was grooming them to be elite? wanting more? hungry? Maybe he saw something none of us saw from the sidelines.

What he was trying to do is teach them from their mistakes they decided they didn’t wanna play for him anymore and he got fired he got crucified Buy some of the Fanbase the actions of the players got him fired people need to look into what he was doing anyone ever heard of tough love

 

[Notsince67]

This fan base is a joke. They will always attack coaches, gms, presidents. I laugh at people who say toronto media is bad, nope, its the fan base thats bad. We literally throw everyone under the bus. If matthews doesnt resign here, we all gotta remmeber its cause of stupid fan base always complaining about every little thing. Yes we should be frustrated at their play this playoff but to just throw our top players under the bus who arent even at their prime yet is a joke and other nhl players see and dont want to come here.

The fan base is generationally deep and the bulk dont bitch on social media. Many have seen far worse teams and have supported them.
Dont mistake the interweb noise for the rooted fan base. Maturity comes with age for some after they have dealt with failure, success and general adversity in their own personal lives.
Those who have done something in their lives find a balance of compliments as well as bitchiness.

 

[17 Clark]

This fan base is a joke. They will always attack coaches, gms, presidents. I laugh at people who say toronto media is bad, nope, its the fan base thats bad. We literally throw everyone under the bus. If matthews doesnt resign here, we all gotta remmeber its cause of stupid fan base always complaining about every little thing. Yes we should be frustrated at their play this playoff but to just throw our top players under the bus who arent even at their prime yet is a joke and other nhl players see and dont want to come here.

So you should give them a free ticket to keep doing what you’re doing you make no sense this is the show me league Not peewee hockey where are you might get your feelings hurt

 

[ShaneFalco]

This fan base is a joke. They will always attack coaches, gms, presidents. I laugh at people who say toronto media is bad, nope, its the fan base thats bad. We literally throw everyone under the bus. If matthews doesnt resign here, we all gotta remmeber its cause of stupid fan base always complaining about every little thing. Yes we should be frustrated at their play this playoff but to just throw our top players under the bus who arent even at their prime yet is a joke and other nhl players see and dont want to come here.

Imagine a fan base being sick of losing Imagine a fan base who are also sick of half-assed efforts, Imagine holding a team accountable. But you do you, and cheer no matter what.