Mitch Marner Receiving Misguided Blame for Maple Leafs Playoff Problems

Marner One of Maple Leafs Most Productive Playoff Players in Recent Years

Despite this point-per-game average dropping ever so slightly, all it takes is one look at some stats not seen in the box score to see that Marner has a huge positive impact whenever he is on the ice for this team.

Looking at the last three years (this year and the past two playoff runs), Mitch Marner has the second-best on-ice goals-for-percentage of any Maple Leafs forward over this stretch, next to Jason Spezza, who only played five playoff games with the Leafs compared to Marner's 22.

In addition to that, over these playoff runs, Marner has the fourth best on-ice expected goal for percentage of any Maple Leaf forward only behind Nick Robertson and Pontus Holmberg who only have four playoff games, and Michael Bunting who would have been Marner's line mate in the Leafs previous two playoff runs.

To add even more, Bunting, Matthews, and Marner, the Maple Leafs' top line in their two previous playoff runs, controlled more than 58% of the scoring chances at five-on-five, and now this year, the combination of Tyler Bertuzzi, Matthews, and Marner is doing the exact same thing.

All it takes is one look past the box score to see Marner has been extremely productive in the playoffs and I find it extremely hard to knock him for his point-per-game average dropping 0.25 per game when opposing goalies have saved +13.23 goals above expected in the Maple Leafs last night playoff games.

In the Panthers and Bruins series last year, it was as simple as the Maple Leafs running into the hottest goaltenders in the NHL.

So far this year, Jeremy Swayman is leading the playoffs in goals saved above expected and last year, Sergei Bobrovsky was second among goalies for the entire playoffs, saving +7.09 goals above expected, with virtually all of these goals saved coming against the Leafs, where he saved +7.75 goals above expected in those five games alone.