Speculation: Was Marleau a bad influence?

[Leafs87]

Hear me out.

Matthews and Marner were very modest kids coming into the NHL. They spent a lot of time with Marleau. Progressively over the years Matthews and Marner gained bad attitudes. Matthews went from humble hard worker who always took things on his shoulder to making constant smirky comments and really is not as aggressive in loose puck battles and stripping pucks as he was as a rookie. Marner came in giving up performance bonuses to squeezing every last penny when he knew it’ll hurt his team.


When Marleau came in he demanded 3 years knowing the third year will hurt the leafs. He even asked for a trade in that third year to return only to the sharks making the leafs pay a 1st to offload him so a team can buy him out.

I know I’m reaching a bit here, but does anyone ever wonder if Marleau’s presence was not the best for them? He was also stripped of the captaincy in the past and asked for a trade than backed out and left his team at 38 to go money chasing

work ethic and attitudes of these two definitely didn’t improve with Marleau around and they did spend a lot of time with him.

The contract demands also show me they weren’t really shown much about putting the team ahead of yourself.

I understand there is a lot of assumptions here and I may be reaching but something in the culture of this team went completely wrong. Having a rookie GM throughout a lot of this didn’t help either.

Click to read more...

 

[Lightsol]

No, I'd say the bad influence is probably the head coach and his inconsistent accountability...

 

[Leafs87]

No, I'd say the bad influence is probably the head coach and his inconsistent accountability...

I agree he’s a big part of the problem too. I’m not saying Marleau is the main issue. Just that he was supposed to mentor Matthews and Marner. As I point out I see a lot of bad traits gained and few good ones

 

[Stringer Bell]

I don't think Marleau was a bad influence off the ice at all.

That being said, he is hardly the player you want your young guys to emulate on the ice. The guy was notorious throughout his career for playing with no real passion, drive, or physicality. There's a reason why he was stripped of the captaincy in San Jose. His good reputation comes primarily from his longevity and not doing anything wrong. Not from necessarily doing anything right.

 

[DavePoulin4PM]

I don't think Marleau was a bad influence off the ice at all.

That being said, he is hardly the player you want your young guys to emulate on the ice. The guy was notorious throughout his career for playing with no real passion, drive, or physicality. There's a reason why he was stripped of the captaincy in San Jose. His good reputation comes primarily from his longevity and not doing anything wrong. Not from necessarily doing anything right.

Lol. If you play that many consecutive games in the NHL you are doing everything right. It’s called being a pro.. and he’s a great one. Joe Thornton was also stripped of his captaincy there too and he will make the HOF.

This thread is a major reach. Marleau is an extremely hard worker and a great teammate. He might not display a ton of killer instinct, but he definitely is not a bad influence.

 

[DavePoulin4PM]

No, I'd say the bad influence is probably the head coach and his inconsistent accountability...

I completely agree. Nylanders cowardly play is killing the culture of this team. Babcock needs to address it. Probably not a bad idea to send Kerfoot and Barrie to the press box for a game.

 

[Leafs87]

I completely agree. Nylanders cowardly play is killing the culture of this team. Babcock needs to address it. Probably not a bad idea to send Kerfoot and Barrie to the press box for a game.

Nylander plays his kind of game. Most teams would kill to have him. The problem comes when you can’t insulate him properly. Instead of having heavy hard working forwards we have fragile less skilled types of Nylanders in the lower seeded positions. We don’t have multiple layers to our team.

just to point out I really am mainly talking about the attitude and culture of the leafs and specifically the attitude change in Matthews and Marner since they came into the league

 

[SoVi3t]

I was actually curious if the opposite was true. Was he making sure the kids behaved, and now they're just running amok?

 

[Cecithepylon]

No! Marleau was a great influence

 

[TexanGuy]

No. Marleau didn’t make Marner a greedy kid. His parents did.

 

[Teeder Keon]

No

 

[Hclass47]

Didn’t AM go to Marleau seeking advice regarding his incident with the security guard / police?

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Didn’t AM go to Marleau seeking advice regarding his incident with the security guard / police?

Yeah was gonna say. Given that it’s likely Marleau knew about Matthews’ incident and he didn’t tell him to come clean to the team that’s enough for me to say he’s a bad influence.

 

[cgarn]

Yes

 

[Antropovsky]

Lol. If you play that many consecutive games in the NHL you are doing everything right. It’s called being a pro.. and he’s a great one. Joe Thornton was also stripped of his captaincy there too and he will make the HOF.

This thread is a major reach. Marleau is an extremely hard worker and a great teammate. He might not display a ton of killer instinct, but he definitely is not a bad influence.

Hes a great role model off the ice....no doubt
Prob couldnt ask for a better one.

On the ice...

being stripped of their captaincys tells me enough about what the San Jose organization felt about their (thornton too) all around ability to lead.

You dont strip a captaincy... from a phenomenal mentor and leader for the fun of it.

Bostons tough leaders certainly seem to have boded with developing tough/pesky workethics into their young players over the past 8-10 years.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

How would any of us know if he was a good influence?

 

[Yorkshire Leaf]

Yeah was gonna say. Given that it’s likely Marleau knew about Matthews’ incident and he didn’t tell him to come clean to the team that’s enough for me to say he’s a bad influence.

How do you know that Marleau didn’t advise Matthews to come clean to the team and Matthews chose to ignore the advice?

 

[Rogue Leader]

How would any of us know if he was a good influence?

That is so true!!!
At this point I am willing to hate anybody who could be responsible for the current ****ty situation.So here is a **** you to him just for good measure!

 

[Hustlr]

I completely agree. Nylanders cowardly play is killing the culture of this team. Babcock needs to address it. Probably not a bad idea to send Kerfoot and Barrie to the press box for a game.

No one agrees with your assessment of Kerfoot.

 

[deletethis]

More likely I suspect the young superstars had influence on who was moved from the team this past summer.

 

[ruaware41]

Man it's like half of you didn't even watch the leafs during Marleau's 2 years and just piggyback off his reputation and/or this intangible force field prevents you from objectively evaluating his on ice play because he is a big strong 6'2 country boy Canadian.

Marleau has been a fukking joke of a player for a while. His attitude and lack of intensity on the ice are very obvious. Guy is more gutless than Kessel ever was or Nylander ever will be. His main goal seems to be to keep that streak alive and earn a paycheck. Most passive player to ever put on skates. Difference is he used to score a boatload of points. When he's not doing that, he's a huge liability on the ice and in terms of his impact on the younger players

 

[NastyKnies]

I completely agree. Nylanders cowardly play is killing the culture of this team. Babcock needs to address it. Probably not a bad idea to send Kerfoot and Barrie to the press box for a game.

And replace them with who exactly, Spezza and Marincin ? Great more tire fire.

 

[DanM]

No one agrees with your assessment of Kerfoot.

Yeah, I was wondering why he singled him out as well, he has been solid for the most part.

 

[Stephen]

The Leafs current play looks like Marleau’s career pros and cons. Speedy offensive forward who has that soft label attached to him. I think he may have gotten along well with the core but probably not the right voice to lead them to greater heights. Look at Justin Williams and what he did with Carolina, that’s more of what Marleau should have done. He’s a well liked guy but he’s not championship material.

 

[YearsintheWilderness]

I don't know if he was a good influence or not, but the three-way public gushing over each other by Marleau, Barner and Matthews was vomit-inducing.