Rival coach comes to Mitch Marner's defense amid backlash over Game 7
Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice doesn't like all the criticism Mitch Marner is getting for failing to pick up David Pastrnak on the OT winner on Saturday.
There's no question that Mitch Marner didn't have a productive series against the Boston Bruins, but in some people's minds, he's taking way too much of the criticism for the loss to Boston in Game 7.
For those who enjoy pain, here's the play that ended the game. You can clearly see Pastrnak attempting to slingshot around Marner in the neutral zone, winding up to enter the attacking zone. Marner lets him breeze right by, which is why so many people are pointing the finger at him.
As Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice mentioned yesterday, though, Marner may not have necessarily missed his assignment after all. As Maurice outlines, you'd need to know how the Leafs run their neutral zone to ascertain whether it was Marner's assignment or not. He's not entirely sold on Marner being deserving of the heat he's taken in the fallout of the Game 7 loss.
Some have suggested that Morgan Rielly was supposed to be the guy expected to pick up Pastrnak on the play, and with how much Rielly has been beating himself up over the loss, there may be some truth to that.
At any rate, a loss is a loss and it doesn't matter how it happened. Nothing can change it now. The Leafs simply have to learn from their mistakes, move on and, as cliche as it is to say, better luck next year.
| POLL | ||
MAI 7 | 758 ANSWERS Rival coach comes to Mitch Marner's defense amid backlash over Game 7 Do you think Paul Maurice is right about Mitch Marner taking too much unfair heat? | ||
| Yes, it may not have been Marner's fault | 396 | 52.2 % |
| No, he's been historically anti-clutch | 362 | 47.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
