The Toronto Maple Leafs Hot-Take Factory: Marner, Coach, Hart + Accountability

On Accountability

Accountability.

It's the catch-phrase of the week in Leaf-Land.

Only thing is, just like effort, humans really don't know what they are talking about when they try to judge it in a situation they are not apart of.

NHL players are held accountable by their coaches in all sorts of ways. According to the public, the only way to hold someone accountable is to rip them to the media, but that is often counterproductive and destroys trust and communication.

I guarantee you that Sheldon Keefe was perfect fine at holding his players accountable. Having some old man yell at you at work has never, ever, made someone a better worker. It doesn't work in factories and it doesn't work in the NHL.

This is a non-sense narrative. If I'm behind honest, as soon as someone mentions "accountability" my eyes glaze over faster than if they started telling me about their kid's sports team, their fantasy sports team, why CBDs are so good, or their takes on wine, the UFC, or Astrology.

On Mitch Marner

He'd score more in the playoffs, and be more popular, if he wasn't saddled with playing so much defense. (stats from naturalstattrick.com).

Marner should be back. Trading him is silly. You don't get better by trading the second-best players in the entire history of your 100 year old franchise.

He suffered a high-ankle sprain in mid-March and was playing after one month even though it was a two-month recovery time. The Leafs still won his minutes.