Toronto Maple Leafs: Marner Robbed, Dubas Should Be Extended

The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New York Rangers Thursday in an exciting finish to the regular season.

The excitement for the last Toronto Maple Leafs game of the season came from the would they or won’t they drama of Ross and Rachel, aka Mitch and Wille.

Nylander played like a man on a mission and notched his 40th goal of the season, two higher than Phil Kessel’s career high. It was as gratifying a performance as Bill Murray’s in one of my all-time favourite movies. 

It still seems hilarious how dumb the media has been regarding Nylander all these years, and really nice to see him notch 40.  It’s glorious.

As for Marner, he was absolutely robbed as replays show the league is 100% wrong in not awarding him the assist on last Saturday’s Auston Matthews goal.

In a truly weird situation, the Leafs and all their fans were hoping the Ranger’s goal with 2 seconds left would actually count to give Marner a chance to score his 100th point in OT.

Unfortunately, yet another call went the Leafs way (I’m kidding, they had one 5:3 power-play all season and the refs clearly have a (Joey) Vendetta (100% Rock) against Michael Bunting and friends.

Toronto Maple Leafs Finish 4th Overall

The Leafs could have finished second, but Carolina and New Jersey both won their final games. So it goes.

Still, fourth overall, and a chance at 2nd until the last game of the season is very impressive.

As you have known since last November, the Toronto Maple Leafs will open the playoffs next week against Tampa Bay.

No matter how that series shakes down, Kyle Dubas should be extended.

Losing the best GM in the game over a coin-flip result is just idiotic.  Especially when he has assembled the greatest team in franchise history, and they’ve made the playoffs seven straight seasons.

The fact is, the NHL playoffs are basically random, and Dubas has done his job.  Bringing Ryan O’Reilly and Jake McCabe (at dirt-cheap discounts) is a masterclass in managing, and by far the best moves anyone made at the deadline.

McCabe has been a revelation after struggling in Chicago and Buffalo for years.  I was wrong about him 200% – I thought he was the typical big-hitting dud who gets overrated for “playing the game the right way” and you can’t blame me for it – he had crap stats on crap teams.

But the NHL also has a tendency to underrate good players on bad teams, and that appears to be the case here.

As for O’Reilly, I was always against him due to the perceived price more than anything else.  I was concerned they’d pay a 2018 price for a declining 32 year old.

But, since joining the Toronto Maple Leafs he’s found the fountain of youth, and if he keeps it up it will be one of the best moves of all-time, when you factor in the price.

To sum up: Dubas deserves an extension, the Leafs had a great year, and Marner was robbed.