Should Matthews/Marner and Tavares/Nylander keep playing together at 5v5 for the remainder of the season and playoffs?

[Oscar Peterson]

The amount of disrespect Tavares gets around here is pretty funny, he’s still a damn good player… not as good as our original big3 nor his AAV but still a luxury to have as a second line center.

As everyone’s been saying, most important thing is that Keefe continues to shake ‘em up when we need a spark, it’s not like there’s a bad combination of the four. Sometimes things just go stale and you need a temporary change.

I will say that I love the season Willy’s put together and it’s been good to see the chemistry between him and Matthews grow as they got more games together, but a Matthews-Marner line is still what raises the ceiling of our team the most.

Will still be interesting to see if we upgrade 2LW before the deadline, Jarnkrok has looked a lot better there than Kerfoot there but another good offensive guy there could really open up options. I don’t think it’ll happen but I’d love if we can pick up Patrick Kane haha

 

[notDatsyuk]

I voted to keep Willie and JT together ,

Willie's faster than Mitch so with Johnny Supersonics new found speed this year he may be able to keep up with mumbles a little better .

I'm not sure what you mean.

Willy is faster than Mitch, and JT can't keep up with either, so he should play with the faster one? And which is 'mumbles'?

 

[DarkKnight]

I voted no, because all 4 have proven they can play together, the ability to mix and match is an asset and Keefe should use this latitude to throw off teams from time to time.

 

[hotpaws]

I'm not sure what you mean.

Willy is faster than Mitch, and JT can't keep up with either, so he should play with the faster one? And which is 'mumbles'?

I was just poking fun at how delusional Tavares is when he keeps mentioning how great his skating has become this season .

fact is he's a drag on whoever he plays with

 

[PromisedLand]

whatever works best for the team should be done. it should be fluid and not set in stone.

reasons:
- opposition usually plans for the way a certain leafs line is going/doing the previous game watching the tape and what not
- if the opposition plan comes to fruition in the 1st period, u gotta adjust and put a dent in their plans starting with 2nd period puck drop

gotta keep the ego on the sdie, its one for all and all for one attitude thats required here

 

[LeafsNation75]

True, but neither is Mitch.

I think Willy can generate more offence on his own than Mitch, who has more of a set-up style.

I think switching keeps both lines fresh, and also makes it harder for opponents to strategize.

Marner has been very close to 100 point player without getting to that number.

In 2018-19 he had 94 points in 82 games.

In 2021-22 he had 97 points in 72 games.

Hopefully this season he can get to 100 points.

 

[notDatsyuk]

I was just poking fun at how delusional Tavares is when he keeps mentioning how great his skating has become this season .

fact is he's a drag on whoever he plays with

I thought it might be sarcasm, but I wasn't sure.

Marner has been very close to 100 point player without getting to that number.

In 2018-19 he had 94 points in 82 games.

In 2021-22 he had 97 points in 72 games.

Hopefully this season he can get to 100 points.

Correct, although I think you're replying to the wrong post.

 

[Its not your fault]

I'm not sure what you mean.

Willy is faster than Mitch, and JT can't keep up with either, so he should play with the faster one? And which is 'mumbles'?

I still can't get over how you didn't make the team.

 

[LeafsNation75]

According to Morgan Rielly, he said the exceptional chemistry between Matthews and Marner comes naturally.

 

[crump]

Prefer Matthews and Marner together. Tavares with Nylander had issues last year, but you wouldn’t know it by that last game. I think Keefe should adjust when needed. Perfect example of that usage in the last game. Doesn’t mean it has to continue, it served its purpose, now you know you can go back to it if you need a boost.

 

[LeafsNation75]

Prefer Matthews and Marner together. Tavares with Nylander had issues last year, but you wouldn’t know it by that last game. I think Keefe should adjust when needed. Perfect example of that usage in the last game. Doesn’t mean it has to continue, it served its purpose, now you know you can go back to it if you need a boost.

This is just one example I could use, however if Keefe never put Matthews and Marner together, which is something Mike Babcock refused to do. We wouldn't have seen them do things like this.

 

[Leafidelity]

Swapping should always be an option

 

[LeafsNation75]

Nylander is a 100+ point pace player without Tavares. He's not the same player with him.

All 3 of the big 4 are better with each other then with Tavares. But Marner is the most creative so he's the best option to play with him. But we need a more skilled guy with Marner on the LW to get the most of that line.

In the 2018-19 season when Tavares had a career best 47 goals and 88 points, he played with Marner that whole year at 5v5. So, if that never happened and I realize they also played together on the power play with Matthews and still do that today, would Tavares not get those numbers and is Marner the main reason why that happened?

 

[Gabriel426]

I really want to see AM and JT on one line and Willie and MM on another.
It will be total meltdown here if the Willie and MM works and see the Willie’s crowd Vs MM’s crowd yapping at each other about who is carrying whom, lol.

 

[LeafsNation75]

I really want to see AM and JT on one line and Willie and MM on another.
It will be total meltdown here if the Willie and MM works and see the Willie’s crowd Vs MM’s crowd yapping at each other about who is carrying whom, lol.

I doubt that's something Keefe will do.

However why can't our fan base just accept that Marner and Nylander are great players, and we should be happy that they are playing for Toronto.

 

[notDatsyuk]

I really want to see AM and JT on one line and Willie and MM on another.
It will be total meltdown here if the Willie and MM works and see the Willie’s crowd Vs MM’s crowd yapping at each other about who is carrying whom, lol.

But then who will carry Matthews?

 

[koyvoo]

Matthews will see a bump in goal scoring production if he can play with Marner full time again

 

[hotpaws]

I really want to see AM and JT on one line and Willie and MM on another.
It will be total meltdown here if the Willie and MM works and see the Willie’s crowd Vs MM’s crowd yapping at each other about who is carrying whom, lol.

Willie and Mitch would rip it up together and the only people that would meltdown are the few that believe Tavares carried them when they were on his wing .

 

[Optimist]

Marner will make any line look better. It's a matter of how the line without Marner plays.

 

[IPS]

I doubt that's something Keefe will do.

However why can't our fan base just accept that Marner and Nylander are great players, and we should be happy that they are playing for Toronto.

Too much of an opportunity for people to push their stupid agendas.

There's those few posters who just haven't got over Marner's camp making Dubas look terrible in negotiations, and they've been holding it against Mitch ever since.

The old narratives against Nylander however have died off for the most part.

 

[ACC1224]

I doubt that's something Keefe will do.

However why can't our fan base just accept that Marner and Nylander are great players, and we should be happy that they are playing for Toronto.

I think everyone realizes that.

 

[123offtheglass]

No definitely not. Keep doing what they’ve been doing for the foreseeable future; its worked as we’ve seen when a line or both get stale. Similar to what they’ve done with having the 5-forward power play unit as an option.

Come playoff time it’ll make it harder for the other team to plan and adjust to this.

 

[All Mod Cons]

I'd like to see Matthews/Tavares and Marner/Nylander.

 

[Gabriel426]

I doubt that's something Keefe will do.

However why can't our fan base just accept that Marner and Nylander are great players, and we should be happy that they are playing for Toronto.

I don’t know, but Willie and MM fans base sometime just reminds me of Team Edward Vs Team Jacob, lol

But then who will carry Matthews?

JT, lol

 

[Confucius]

If it’s 2 minutes play them together for the whole 2 minutes