Mitch Marner
- Thread starter LuncheonMeat
- Start date
8) 
, what Nik said.
Redleaf
Active member
Nik the Trik said:
I think he is expected to drive that line. I recall Babcock saying those words at some point last year . My guess is, like we?ve seen so many times with younger players, most recently with Rielly, that he?s being asked to play a more defensive detailed game with the promise that the offense will come back in time once the defensive oriented mind-set becomes instinctive . Personally I loved Marner?s game up until what we?ve seen so far early this season. Hopefully this defense-first coaching doesn?t stiffle his offence prowess too much or for too long.
herman
Well-known member
Significantly Insignificant said:
Pulling this in from the Habs GDT:
CarltonTheBear said:
I think this is mental rather than mono, for Marner. And I also think it's the opposite of deferential, but amounts to the same appearance of indecisiveness.
He said he's been trying to shoot more, which basically translates to: Marner's not playing his usual game. What that amounts to on the ice, and you can see this, is an extra second or so of decision-making that previously was not there, which means defenders and goalies are have that extra bit of time to square him up or box him out.
I'm okay with him trying to work new elements into his game throughout the regular season; practice is going to push that stuff into the instinct level and reduce thinking time and if they're good tactics, the results will come (see Hyman).
herman said:
Yeah, I got to thinking about this a little more after Nik asked the question, and I think the Leafs as a whole haven't really played well as a team. It shows up mostly on the Marner line. I think they are getting by on some great individual efforts, but overall it seems like their passing just isn't there. That could be that teams are now wise to the skills that the Leafs bring to the game, or it could be a rust thing. I'm sure they'll turn it around, but in watching the games, it looks like they are forcing some things rather than just letting them develop naturally.
Andy007
Active member
I don't think Marner is a good fit with his line. Bozak isn't a very good passer and JVR just kind of skates off into his own world. Defensively the former two are atrocious and that certainly can't help a young player trying to ingratiate himself into the lineup and learn a two-way game. Even strength that line struggles badly to simply exit their zone, let alone do much offensively on a consistent basis. I'd love to see Marner on Kadri's wing and a defensively-minded winger on the Bozak line.
WhatIfGodWasALeaf
Active member
Twitter having a meltdown this morning because Marner and Brown have swapped lines at practice.
bustaheims
Active member
herman said:
So, other than the fact that a JvR-Bozak-Brown line would be just as much of a mess defensively, while losing a step on offence . . .
Hyman - Matthews - Nylander
Marleau - Kadri - Komarov
JvR - Bozak - Brown
Leivo - Moore/Fehr - Marner
Seriously, this lineup would be nigh unstoppable (slightly more nigh than they already are). Unfortunately, it won't happen, because Martin needs to play for some reason.
bustaheims said:
I'd say Brown's an improvement defensively over Marner, but yeah the two biggest defensive deficiencies on that line are JVR and Bozak, and Brown isn't going to be able to fix that.
Babs said that the whole JVR-Bozak-Marner trio was bad against Montreal and wanted to make a change and that it ended up being Marner who goes down because the "tie goes to veteran".
Accountability!
Accountability!
bustaheims
Active member
CarltonTheBear said:
Yeah. That was less about Marner vs Brown defensively. More about how little impact swapping them is really going to have on the overall defensive play of the line.
This is basically precisely why I don't think trading JVR would really hurt the team as much as people think it will. The JVR-Bozak duo will ALWAYS be a trainwreck defensively. It's basically been like for years. If Babs can't fix it at this point then there's really no hope for them in their own end. But there's nowhere else to put those two. JVR isn't going to play with Matthews because of Hyman, and he isn't going to play with Kadri because that's a shutdown unit. So we'll always be stuck with the two of them together until one of them leaves.
Trade JVR, move Komarov back to the left side with Bozak and Marner, and bump Brown to Kadri's line, and you still have arguably one of the best top-9 forward groups in the league.
Trade JVR, move Komarov back to the left side with Bozak and Marner, and bump Brown to Kadri's line, and you still have arguably one of the best top-9 forward groups in the league.