It’s absurd to have media availability on locker room clean-out day. Though nothing alters the reality that the Leafs fell in the first round and it appears like more work will need to be done than one summer to get the team back on track, there remains a glimmer of optimism that someone will say something that provides an upbeat look at the future.
The Leafs players, for the most part, threw themselves humbly at the mercy of the Toronto sports fans and Maple Leafs media on Monday, providing the same old platitudes about how much they believe in one another, how disappointed they are that they couldn’t finish the season, and how much they would love to play again next year. Mitch Marner mostly adhered to that plan, with one minor exception:
“We are considered as somewhat of gods here” is a highly charged comment on a day when Mitch Marner would never be able to say the right thing to a significant portion of his audience. It was already difficult to support the $11 million winger because Marner had only three points in seven games versus the Bruins and had failed to cover David Pastrnak on the game-winning goal, but a God analogy only makes it more difficult.
Given Marner’s past transgressions in the media, a sane person would probably provide him the benefit of the doubt when he states that Toronto places Maple Leafs players on a pedestal and treats them with tremendous affection, and the players want to live up to that. He could also be implying that there is an unachievable ideal to live up to and that people expect the Maple Leafs to be flawless. That also seems like a really accurate statement, in my opinion. If you believe that Mitch Marner isn’t trying or doesn’t care in any way, then that is a problem with “you being wrong,” not with Marner.
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