Hall of Famer Adam Oates defends Maple Leafs’ Mitch Marner in latest episode of The Cam & Strick Podcast
Hall of Famer Adam Oates defends Maple Leafs’ Mitch Marner in latest episode of The Cam & Strick Podcast
Hall of Fame centerman Adam Oates came to the defense of Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner, whom he believes has unjustly received all the blame amid another early playoff exit.
Given Marner has been viewed as the latest ‘scapegoat’ for his playoff woes in Toronto and being seen as the odd man out this offseason, there are not many voices taking his side as of late. Oates however, delivered both an animated and detailed dialogue dissecting his defense for the superstar forward on the Cam & Strick Podcast on Tuesday.
Oates began by describing the incident in Game 4 between the Leafs and Boston Bruins in their first-round playoff series that led to teammates being visibly upset with each other on the bench.
"Like when (William) Nylander yelled at him. Well, Nylander, first of all, you don't play against everybody's best. You play against everybody's second-best, let's get that straight. Number two, he was mad at (Auston) Matthews for a bad turnover at the blue line. That's what he's mad at and he's also mad and he threw his gloves. Why? Because he knows tomorrow in the paper, they're gonna blame him," Oates explained.
After taking an unwarranted shot at William Nylander, arguably the Leafs’ most consistent playoff performer among the 'core four', Oates highlighted the impact of playing In major markets like Toronto, where the lights are always brighter and the pressure is always on. With 1,500 games and over 1,500 points, Oates has been around the game for a while, certainly being able to assess when someone is taking more heat than they should be in a team sport. For instance, on the power play – which Oates believes is not at the fault of one player wearing number 16.
“The power play was 1 for 20. If they were 5 for 20, they'd still be playing right now. And he'd have three more points, four more points, they wouldn't be complaining right now, would they? So, therefore, now you look at the power play. Of course. That's 2 units,10 guys, and 1 coach, right? And the head coach. It's never one guy and I feel bad for [Marner] because he's in that market,” Oates said.
When discussing the series as a whole, one common denominator was the power play. If your man advantage units are clicking at just a 1-for-20 pace, it’s a game changer in the postseason – which turned out to be the difference. However, the Leafs were without Matthews and Nylander for a majority of the series, needing Marner to step in and embrace a bigger role – producing three goals in seven games, wasn’t going to cut it.
Perhaps the area where Marner faced the most criticism was on the series-winning goal, which many were quick to blame for his lack of coverage in the neutral zone on one of the game’s most prolific goal scorers, Bruins’ David Pastrnak.
“The game-winning goal, Pastrnak's goal, they're blaming him and it's like, if anybody knows anything about hockey, they were in a neutral zone regroup. So F1 changed and he jumped over for F1, Pastrnak's not his responsibility at all,” Oates argued.
Oates was not the first to defend Marner on the game-winning goal of the series that saw Pastrnak score on a set play. Two former Maple Leafs coaches, Paul Maurice and Andrew Brewer, also came to the defense of Marner, making similar claims regarding the team’s structure in the neutral zone with Maurice claiming that “Marner took an awful lot of heat."
“They run a different neutral zone than what Boston does. The expectation of who’s got who’s guy; you want to be careful with that one. You really need to know what the team runs before you call a guy out," said Maurice.
With talks about shaking up the ‘core four’, Marner is the piece that has fallen out of place. Both Matthews and Nylander recently signed extensions with the organization, basically cementing their role in a Maple Leafs uniform. Tavares is in a unique spot with a no-trade clause on an expensive deal for his age, leaving Marner with a $10.9 million cap hit for one more year and the odd man out.
Even though he is regarded as one of the NHL’s top playmakers, his inability to produce in the playoffs and the lack of postseason success for the team overall have brought the organization to a crossroads. Only time will tell the direction the club opts to take, but it would require Marner to waive his no-trade clause to make any move happen – with a change of scenery potentially being beneficiary for both sides.
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