Matthews and Marner vs Matthews and Nylander

[MapleLeafs77]

I know everyone wants matthews with marner but I think they look horrible together compared to matthews and nylander.

They dont have that chemistry. Both want the puck constantly. Matthews or marner are kind of pushed to the side when they play.

I think matthews with nylander is a way better combination and suit each other way more.

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[MJ65]

Based on 1 game? well I am not going to form any opinion just on one game, We should give them some time to gel

 

[Buds17]

I wouldn't be against Matthews and Marner lining up together regularly. Would have to then have confidence in a Tavares-Nylander tandem to go along with that as well. I'd probably still return to Matthews-Nylander and Tavares-Marner though, just because of both previous history and Matthews and Marner being off to the more productive starts.

It really depends on the differences (and the extent of them) one sees in Matthews vs Tavares and Marner vs Nylander. Pair the "better" options together, or spread the wealth across two lines? I don't really think there's a wrong answer here though in terms of which centre lines up with which right winger.

 

[Walshy7]

JT and nylander has a really high success rate the few times they happened to be together. I’m sure it’s more coincidental than they had a weird connection from minimal play time.

7 of nylander 27 points last season involved JT they played very minimal mins together from memory they never actually lined up together it was just one of them changing late type thing

 

[DarkKnight]

Nylander wants and needs the puck too, your underdeveloped “thread” really doesn’t say anything.

 

[Guided by Veseys]

I don’t think Matthews wants the puck except when he wants to shoot it directly in the net. He’s all about quick passes and using his size to get in position. Given time He and Marner would likely be terrifying as an offensive tandem. Matthews is one of the very best finishers in the league, better than Tavares, and Mitch is pretty good at hitting the open man.

 

[67Leafs67]

Kind of difficult to make an assessment given there is basically no sample of Matthews + Marner to draw data from? I mean, you can throw hypotheticals out all you want, but until you get a solid, consistent sample of play, nothing is really definitive.

Obviously we know Matthews + Nylander has been a success whenever Babs feels inclined to combine them. One would imagine that Marner's success with Tavares, another left handed goal scoring centre, would translate to Matthews, but you never know for sure. Nylander & Marner play pretty similar styles/strengths, and I think that as long as you continue to have one of each centre with one of each right wing, you'll have two scary good duos. Might be worth trying just to see.

 

[Community]

Style-wise, I have said since we signed Tavares that Nylander-Tavares and Marner-Matthews makes the most sense.

Both Nylander and Tavares are multi offensive threats in the sense that they both pass and shoot well while Matthews and Marner are more a typical playmaker/scorer duo. Although Nylanders shot has seemed kind of off since last year.

Having said that, there is more to chemistry than simply matching passers with shooters, but it would be interesting to see Matthews and Marner together for a longer period of time.

 

[LeafingTheWay]

Both are great IMO.

But Marner is better defensively than Nylander, so it has to be Matthews-Nylander, Tavares-Marner since the Tavares line usually gets the tougher matchup at home (and sometimes while away too).

 

[Wafflewhipper]

I know everyone wants matthews with marner but I think they look horrible together compared to matthews and nylander.

They dont have that chemistry. Both want the puck constantly. Matthews or marner are kind of pushed to the side when they play.

I think matthews with nylander is a way better combination and suit each other way more.

Matthews had a bad game eh!

 

[Wafflewhipper]

Kind of difficult to make an assessment given there is basically no sample of Matthews + Marner to draw data from? I mean, you can throw hypotheticals out all you want, but until you get a solid, consistent sample of play, nothing is really definitive.

Obviously we know Matthews + Nylander has been a success whenever Babs feels inclined to combine them. One would imagine that Marner's success with Tavares, another left handed goal scoring centre, would translate to Matthews, but you never know for sure. Nylander & Marner play pretty similar styles/strengths, and I think that as long as you continue to have one of each centre with one of each right wing, you'll have two scary good duos. Might be worth trying just to see.

funny, i thought for sure i was watching them together on the powerplay. We have been playing the Bruins lately so i forget what a powerplay looks like. I tjink i mighthave seen them together on one in the past! )

 

[biotk]

I wouldn't mind seeing them together for several games in a row. However, in the limited minutes they have played together at 5v5 both last game and previously I have never been overly impressed. The one exception was the half game they played together with Matt Martin. In general though I just find that Marner doesn't seem to find Matthews in the offensive zone when the latter is open. Perhaps Matthews hasn't been getting open in those situations - I have no idea. Perhaps that will improve with more time. On the other hand I also don't think that Marner is great at getting royal road passes across to Matthews on the PP. I think that Marner is amazing at getting passes to the front of the net on the PP for Tavares (and before that JVR).

 

[Walshy7]

I wouldn't mind seeing them together for several games in a row. However, in the limited minutes they have played together at 5v5 both last game and previously I have never been overly impressed. The one exception was the half game they played together with Matt Martin. In general though I just find that Marner doesn't seem to find Matthews in the offensive zone when the latter is open. Perhaps Matthews hasn't been getting open in those situations - I have no idea. Perhaps that will improve with more time. On the other hand I also don't think that Marner is great at getting royal road passes across to Matthews on the PP. I think that Marner is amazing at getting passes to the front of the net on the PP for Tavares (and before that JVR).

Totally agree, they have never had a shift where it is pure domination I actually don’t think they work together very well at all. In saying that I’d like to see babs go with them for ~20 games once JT is back and have nylander with JT it could just be that spark that gets us going

 

[ACC1224]

This is silly.

Both can be great options.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

I think the obvious answer would be Matthews/Marner, but I actually found when they played together last year they didn't really mesh well together. I believe Matthews/Nylander is the better combination.

 

[qqaz]

This is silly.

Both can be great options.

Yup. There's not really a bad choice.

 

[MapleLeafs77]

When they have played together it has been mediocre at best. In my opinion, it has never been something where its super obvious they need to be together. Not like they light up the league when together.

I personally just think that willy and matty are much better than mitch and matty.

 

[Nithoniniel]

Hopefully we'll see more of it to better judge. The chemistry wasn't instantaneous like it was between Matthews and Nylander.

Nylander and Tavares have great result in a similar small sample size. In both cases I expect things to normalize significantly as they play more together.

 

[Mess]

I've yet to see the combo of Matthews and Marner to be impactful and successful at 5v5 as a duo.

Seems forced but the results don't support the claim that the ends justify the means.

I'd rather Marner try and carry his own line.

 

[Leafidelity]

I'd like to see these three together on a line some day. I'd settle for a powerplay unit.

 

[The Beyonder]

I think both can suit each other just fine. You have to give the Matthews-Marner combo some time, they need to get out of that early excitement period where they are looking for each other way too much and are just to play way too pretty. Once they settle in, they'll be even better.

 

[67Leafs67]

funny, i thought for sure i was watching them together on the powerplay. We have been playing the Bruins lately so i forget what a powerplay looks like. I tjink i mighthave seen them together on one in the past! )

The PP is an entirely different question than EV line combinations, so that's not a sample that can be drawn from and compared. I do agree though, we haven't had enough PPs lately, haha.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

I don't think Marner really cares as long as he has someone finishing off his plays. He needs to have a guy who can score on his line. Both Matthews and Tavares fit the bill, but I think the way Tavares drives a line is much more fitting for Marner than Matthews.

 

[Menzinger]

Marner and Matthew's really havent shown much chemistry together at even strength, though we definitely dont have a big enough sample size on that.

I still think it's strange we didn't see some Nylander'JT experimentation last season. They seem like theyd make an intriguing pair

Either way - better to try and mix things up a bit early in the season than when your desperate in the playoffs. Having more flexibility in the units is only a good thing