Marner has become fallen idol
As fans and critics pile on after playoff disappointment, teammates defend ‘scapegoat’ winger
It is doubtless a quote that will live in infamy for Mitch Marner. Like “peace in our time” for Neville Chamberlain and “grab ’em by the p-----” for that criminally indicted guy.
Which is unfair because there was context and, frankly, Marner wasn’t wrong. So let’s get it out of the way straightaway.
The subject, when it was Marner’s turn up against the backdrop at the Maple Leafs’ practice facility Monday: What does it mean to be a Leaf?
“It means the world,” he said. “Obviously, we’re looked upon as kind of gods here, to be honest.” False gods but real idols. How many millions have fantasized about it? Less than 900 have actually experienced it.
“It’s something that you really appreciate, the love that you get here from this fan base is kind of not like any other,” Marner said.
“You saw that with the Raptors a couple of years ago, the love that they still have for a lot of those players that they had to trade off this year. That’s kind of the love that you want.”
Arguably more than any other Leaf, Marner covets the love. But fans aren’t bringing him the love at this moment — or at least not a particularly caterwauling faction of Leafs Nation and a considerable number of pundits.
The neediness in Marner, the local son of an overbearing hockey dad, has oftentimes been expressed in sound bites that convey frustration, petulance and an uncanny tendency to get on the wrong side of the media. No athlete will ever win at that game. Reporters always get the last word.
But Marner is the whipping boy du jour. Which doesn’t mean that the criticism is unwarranted. He had one goal and two assists in the Leafs’ opening-round series against Boston. He wasn’t much of a factor in general, stood accused of a disappearing act, and let the overtime goal-scorer escape his coverage in Game 7, along with Morgan Rielly and William Nylander.
Put the blame on Mitch, I guess, the sour discontent. Off with his head and out with the remaining year on his contract, though Marner, with a no-trade-clause, holds the hammer on that. Does he want to remain a Leaf, though? Certainly sounded that way.
“That’d be the goal. I’ve expressed my love for this place, this city. I grew up here. We’ll start to think about that now and try to figure something out.”
With his agent, he meant, and the organization. He’ll turn his mind to it in the next week or so.
Certainly other Leafs have been driven out of Toronto on a rail, either because the coach and GM couldn’t stand them (Frank Mahovlich) or the caterwauling fans would give them no peace (Larry Murphy). And quite a few (Steve Stamkos, for instance) wouldn’t come to this city if their lives depended on it.
Odd, maybe not so odd, how one player can come to be viewed as the schmuck, blamed for all the wrongdoings, the failures. Or sometimes a team, a city, a fan base has just had its fill of you. It’s difficult to turn that propulsion around.
So on this day — friends, Romans and peeps — we come not to bury Marner but to let his teammates praise him.
“In my time here, I’ve learned that there’s always a scapegoat, there’s always a narrative, there’s always something,” Auston Matthews said.
“We love Mitchie. He’s a great teammate, he’s a great friend and a competitor. In the end, we’re also human beings. You take on a lot as players and rightfully so. Obviously when guys go through something like that, it’s hard on everybody. You just try to support him and be there for him.”
That now infamous squabble on the bench during the Game 4 loss amongst Marner, Matthews and Nylander may indeed have been nothing more than a sharp exchange over a specific play. The optics were bad but it probably still amounted to a fart in a mitten in the heat of the moment, not indicative of a deeper schism, an animus-a-trois.
“Look, there’s always someone getting heat here regardless of what it is, however it’s going,” said Nylander, who for a while was the target. “That’s just the way it is. There’s always going to be something that you guys have to say or whatever. But that’s a fact of what it is playing here.”
Matthew Knies: “Mitch is very loud, sometimes annoying. But, no, I love him. He’s definitely one of the guys that welcomed me with open arms and was a big reason as to why I got comfortable so quick here.”
Max Domi: “I love the kid to death and seeing what he’s done in his career so far and how big of a role he has here in the hockey mecca and that’s how he carries himself.”
Those are the testimonials. Put it on Marner’s tombstone as a Leaf: He was loved.
Until he wasn’t, so much, by the vicarious Leafs.