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2nd Rnd '25 Playoffs: Leafs vs Panthers - Flo-Rida them onto the ECF - LFG!

Artnes said:
He wanted to be the home town hero so bad and just doesn't have the chops to pull it off.

Being drafted to the Leafs might have been the worst thing for his career
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I think he’s done alright

Still young enough to alter his legacy/narrative
 
LeafOfFaith said:
Of course he wants to be back. I think he'd take a big cut on a short deal to make it happen.

I just don't know if we even want it. For what purpose, to see this again?

The problem we have is that they're all always shit, so you can't even diagnose the real problem. Is it Marner? Is it Matthews? What the fuck is the root cause of this? So you basically by default have to let Marner go, only to maybe discover next year that Marner excels on another team while Matthews shits the bed again for us.
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Their performances in the four nations sealed it for me. It's definitely Marner (who got demoted during the tournament) and it's definitely Matthews (who captained the losing team and couldn't score to save his life).
 
In Toronto we have always been disappointed when we don't have the best player or players in the leauge. We ran Frank M out of town because he wasn't Bobby Hull, Stan Makita or Phil Esposito. We're going to do the same with Mitch. We've been a top 10 team for years. We haven't been successful in playoffs, but we have been lucky to watch good hockey for a long time.
 
CTheBigPicture said:
Their performances in the four nations sealed it for me. It's definitely Marner (who got demoted during the tournament) and it's definitely Matthews (who captained the losing team and couldn't score to save his life).
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That's exactly what I mean, like there's no real way to fucking know, even with that small sample which turned on a hair in OT and somehow involved both of them directly.
 
CTheBigPicture said:
Their performances in the four nations sealed it for me. It's definitely Marner (who got demoted during the tournament) and it's definitely Matthews (who captained the losing team and couldn't score to save his life).
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yeah mitch and matthews were forwards on the best lines on the best teams in the world and were probably the best players for their teams in that final.
 
thehabhater said:
Honest question….how do you propose getting superstars?
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Either tank or hit it big. With McDavid out there, I won't advocate for the thank. Set everything up next year so you are one McDavid away from winning it all and hope you land him.

If McDavid resigns, then tank away.
 
There's room for a pretty hard reset here without doing much heavy lifting. Just let Marner and JT walk, and let Mo pick a new home. Fire Jarnkrok and Kampf out of a cannon finally, extend Knies and you have a bag of cap and this under contract:

Domi-Matthews-XXXXX
Knies-XXXXXX-Willy
Laughton-XXXXX-McMann

with Robbie and Holmberg as RFA's to figure out what you're doing with and Cowan probably ready to make the jump. Focus on getting good 2 & 3C's who can own some 5v5 minutes and we're probably in good shape there.

McCabe-Tanev
XXXXXX-Carlo
OEL-Benoit

I'd prefer some more puck moving in there tbh...

and the goaltending is cheap and sorted for one more year anyway
 
enbridge said:
In Toronto we have always been disappointed when we don't have the best player or players in the leauge. We ran Frank M out of town because he wasn't Bobby Hull, Stan Makita or Phil Esposito. We're going to do the same with Mitch. We've been a top 10 team for years. We haven't been successful in playoffs, but we have been lucky to watch good hockey for a long time.
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As much as it feels like insanity, I don't see how they can let him walk if he wants to stay. They would just need to negotiate the shit out of his deal to get him to sign for a relative song. Let him go for nothing and then what, sign Ehlers and Bennett? How do we even know any other good player wants to step into this?

I also think that letting Marner go will destroy Matthews, and he'll be gone soon after too after putting up bad numbers without Marner and getting all the blame. If they let Marner go, they probably should look into trading Matthews too, and just start over. But we'd get half price for Matthews right now, after all this. Unmitigated disaster, where the only path might be to bring them all fucking back, and we're not going to and will completely fuck the franchise for a decade as we run everybody else out of town.
 
zeke said:
yeah mitch and matthews were forwards on the best lines on the best teams in the world and were probably the best players for their teams in that final.
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Marner got demoted during the tournament and Matthews couldn't score a goal in yet another big game. Yes Marner had the winning assist but given history that's an exception rather than the rule.

Fancy stats be damned. These two together can't win. Separately, may have success. Either way they need to part ways. Cannot bring them back together. It was shocking we did this year.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
Fuck the crowd too. Hold your damn boos till the end. Maybe cheer them on all game instead of being shellshocked.
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They paid their money, they can do what they want. I applaud those fans who stuck around to the end just to boo them. They were the only people in the building wearing blue and white who demonstrated that they gave a shit about winning and losing.
 
CTheBigPicture said:
Marner got demoted during the tournament and Matthews couldn't score a goal in yet another big game. Yes Marner had the winning assist but given history that's an exception rather than the rule.

Fancy stats be damned. These two together can't win. Separately, may have success. Either way they need to part ways. Cannot bring them back together. It was shocking we did this year.
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matthews was responsible for all the USA goals in the final, and mitch was promoted to the top line for being awesome.
 
Artnes said:
It eventually comes out that Matthews was playing with a bad injury but that doesn't negate the fact that his playoff performances have been pedestrian
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If there's one guy I think you just have to bite the bullet on and hope/assume that if you put the right cast around him, he'll finally figure it out (health permitting), it's Matthews. Gluing the softest, pass only winger in the league to him hasn't helped. Bringing in the softest robot in the league to be his 2C didn't help. Maybe we've ruined him and it's too late, maybe he never had it to begin with. But as an archetype, "that" guy wins a cup or three just about every time he shows up in the league.
 
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