Lol my blood boils when I see people saying AM and Marner did nothing because they chocked or because Danault "neutralized" them, but the first group don't want to accept that Price was THAT good, the second group don't want to accept that Danault is not a GOD defensively.
In fact, I looked it up before the Jets series, and Matthews' metrics were up double or triple in every category in the playoffs (did not check Marner). AM showed up big time, but he was also stopped big time by Carey Price.
Full stop on the bolded. You accuse someone to cherry pick stats when you state:
Ok so
1) 26/7 = 3.7, not 3.5 shots per game
2) you cherry picked 5v5 stats. AM shot at a 4.26 shots per game TOTAL in the RS, not too far from his playoffs 5v5... that same metrics goes up to 5 shots per game in the playoffs if you count every situation
A drop from 17.6 S% to 3% is not just "playoff numbers are lower" lol.
3) AM absolutely played great these playoffs. Tripled his number of hits (physically involved), doubled his takeaways, while reducing giveaways, and nearly double the blocked shots (defensive involvement). Oh yeah, his faceoff % was also up from 51% to 55%, and everyone now praises Danault for being so effective in the dot against Matthews?
The eye test matches up too, but that's subjective so I won't comment on the multiple shots from AM from the circles or in the slot, where Price rarely (if any?) gave a rebound.
Of course, since Danault was matched to Matthews all series long, his defensive stats will look glorious...
If we had lost. nobody would talk about Danault neutralizing AM and Marner. In fact, it was not even a topic of discussion before the game 7 win. Most people on here were on agreement that he had not showed up.
That said, I thought he played great against Winnipeg, and we really need him to keep playing great if we want a chance to win the next series. Him and Gallagher (and everyone) need to keep playing their best hockey and we have a chance.
