For the second straight night, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Ottawa Senators.
As one genius or another once said, ‘results are random, trust the process.’ I wouldn’t get too worried about back-to-back losses, especially when the Toronto Maple Leafs were the better possession and scoring chance team in both games.
Oh, and it’s pre-season and doesn’t matter.
But, games aside, I saw a very disturbing trend last night.
I hopped on Twitter during the third period, and I saw literally dozens of people ripping on Martin Marincin. It was, frankly, an embarrassment.
First, Toronto is the oldest and most storied franchise. It’s fans should be classier. But more than that, they should be more knowledgeable. Whether or not Marincin had a bad game or not last night is irrelevant. During his entire NHL career, when he gets on the ice his team with the differential battle in shot-attempts, shots, scoring-chances and goals. That means he’s good.
It might not be pretty, and he may never be a star, but the facts are the facts: No matter what you think of him, Marincin is an effective defenseman. Sure, some stats can be presented out of context and be used to trick you. But there is nothing tricky about tracking even-strength shot-attempt, shot, scoring chance and goal differentials. There is nothing else to playing hockey. If you contribute positively to all four of those categories, over a large sample size (which he has done) then you are a good player. End of story.
I mean what argument could you possibly make against a player who makes his team better every time he’s on the ice?
An Embarrassment.
Not only do the fans who consider their team and city the centre of the hockey world humiliate themselves by randomly hating a good player, they further embarrass themselves by picking on that player to the point of bullying.
Last night, around 10 O’clock, if you were on Twitter you saw mob-mentality in action. Just one person after another wanting to contribute some analysis that will get ‘liked’ and realizing that one opinion that isn’t going to get any flack is that Marincin sucks.
The fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs have a long history of running players out of town. From Larry Murphy, to Brian Mccabe to Dion Phaneuf. It seems every Leafs team must have it’s designated whipping boy for the lowest common denominator.
Of course they all leave Toronto and go on to success elsewhere, but a history of being proven wrong apparently has no power to deter.
Obviously Martin Marincin didn’t have his best game last night if all you remember is the one mistake he made that led to a goal. But even if that’s all you saw, it’s a pre-season game and the level of vitriol directed his way was both inappropriate and ridiculous.
"Martin Marincin" is trending on Twitter. You guys are pretty funny. https://t.co/sO9DUTkunu
— Kevin McGran (@kevin_mcgran) September 20, 2017
Pathetic is more like it.
There is no denying that that is a bad play. But the thing is, it can (and does) happen to anyone. If you watch any player specifically, they will make bad plays. If you’re predisposed to hating that player, you’re going to notice those plays.
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Martin Marincin: Above Average NHL Player
Marincin doesn’t score, so you really only notice him when he screws up. This is why people have such a misguided view of his abilities. But the thing is, he’s always solid and performing well. (That’s why Babcock plays him). You don’t need to score to be effective, you can also prevent goals, something Marincin is great at.
Last night, the Leafs dressed someone called Vincent LoVerde, and he was with Marincin for over 80% of the time Marincin was on the ice 5v5. So if Marincin had a bad game, maybe that had something to do with it?
Except he actually had a great game! Just a 71% CF (dominant to the point of a being a joke) and on the ice for one goal for and zero goals against. That play above? He was on the PK and yeah, it was brutal, but guess what? In the regular season last year, Marincin was the Leafs 5th most used penalty killer, which means he was only in that role last night because the Leafs dressed guys like LoVerde, Valiev and Holl.
So not only did Leafs Nation bully a guy who actually had a great game, they completely embarrassed themselves while doing it.
Martin Marincin should be an every day NHL player and he should be on the Leafs. Leafs fans should realize that and stop trying to run a good player out of town. Last night was clearly an example of an unpopular player making one bad play, and a then a lot of followers wanting the dopamine rush of getting lots of likes and retweet, saw an easy target and went for it.
It was undeserved. It was classless. And, most disturbingly, it was wrong, since the player in question had a fine game.