Media beginning to turn on Mitch Marner once again and Sheldon Keefe steps in to provide some backup
Every season, Mitch Marner seems to be in the eye of the storm with the Toronto media for one reason or another. His $10.9 million salary cap is always brought into play and if he ever struggles to put together goals or points - while the Toronto Maple Leafs are losing - he's generally the first person to get blamed.
2023-24 hasn't been any different as the 26-year-old is mired in a 7-game slump where he has just recorded 3 assists. Prior to that, he had back to back 4-point games and was riding a 7-game streak with 13 points along the way.
Before their matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Sheldon Keefe said that Marner wasn't "executing at the level that you'd expect from Mitch," and hadn't "found his groove here yet". He then changed his tune a little after the game when he saw how the media twisted his words from earlier in the day:
"One of them I look at is our five-on-five scoring this season and at the top of the list is Mitch Marner," Keefe said. "Guy here that we say hasn't played his best hockey, and has all the hardest matchups every single night, yet is at the top of our team in five-on-five scoring. So, it's interesting how it all works out. Let's not pile on the negatives here."
Marner leads the Leafs with 13 five-on-five points and while he hasn't played bad by any stretch of the imagination, he hasn't played to his lofty standards that earned him one of the highest salaries in the sport - which is something he will always be compared to.
The analytics to his game have dropped considerably as well. Marner's expected goals is at 49% compared to the 56% he held last year and 62% the year before. His shots per 60 is also a career-low at 6.7 and even his top speed is 2 kms per hour slower than last year.
Nevertheless, Marner is still a prominent figure in this Maple Leafs offense and has been prone to "slow" starts. Last year he compiled 4 goals and 22 points through 19 games, which is just 2 points more than what he currently has through the same amount of games. He ended up finishing the season with 30 goals and 99 points.
His game will surely come back but the rest of the team has to figure into this as well. They can't just pin their hopes squarely on the Marner's and the Auston Matthews' on the team. The Leafs have an important stretch of games coming up against Florida, Seattle, Boston, and Ottawa, so look for Marner to get back on track in short order.
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 26 | 441 ANSWERS Media beginning to turn on Mitch Marner once again and Sheldon Keefe steps in to provide some backup How many points does Marner finish the season with after a slow start? | ||
| 100+ | 72 | 16.3 % |
| 90-99 | 123 | 27.9 % |
| 80-89 | 136 | 30.8 % |
| Less than 80 | 110 | 24.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
