Replay of Pastrnak's OT winner shows Mitch Marner blowing his coverage
Mitch Marner's lack of effort in overtime haunted the Leafs once again, and cost them the series against the Boston Bruins in Game 7.
Shortly after the overtime period began, Marner hopped onto the ice as David Pastrnak was making a loop in the neutral zone to pick up speed on a designed dump in play. Well aware of Pastrnak and his speed, Marner should have attempted to skate with Pastrnak to disrupt the retrieval off the end boards. Unfortunately, Marner stopped skating as soon as Pastrnak was past him, leaving a flat-footed Morgan Rielly by himself to cut the angle to the net off.
All series long, we saw Matthew Knies skate his ass off on backchecks and do enough to disrupt scoring chances, including earlier in Game 7. This isn't the first time Marner has come under fire for his lack of compete this series as a couple of games ago, Marner completely bailed on a forecheck because he felt he was going to get hit by Charlie McAvoy.
With the Leafs failing to advance past the first round again, this could be the last play that Marner is remembered for. Marner has one year left on his current deal and is eligible to sign an extension as of July 1st. However, many believe he may not make it to Leafs training camp as he has become the most likely of the "Core 4" to be traded, even though he has a no-movement clause.
| POLL | ||
MAI 5 | 1170 ANSWERS Replay of Pastrnak's OT winner shows Mitch Marner blowing his coverage Has Mitch Marner played his last game as a Leaf? | ||
| Absolutely | 837 | 71.5 % |
| No, he'll he back next season | 333 | 28.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
