The Leafs have a MAJOR Problem…

Darius Domingues breaks down Mitch Marner’s play so far this season, his comparibles, how it effects Nylander, Sheldon Keefe’s questionable decisions and Gio is back!

0:00 Leafs News
0:42 Marner’s Struggles
6:57 Gio Is Back
8:19 Questionable Decisions

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Looks like the leafes have a huge issue on their hands with one of the core four not playing up to the standard we know them to be playing to there are some questionable decisions being made by Sheldon Keefe lately and is some of the play from some of the Leaf’s players

Affecting neander eventual new contract extension guys welcome back to another episode of Leaf’s digest my name is Darius domingus and before we get any further we’ve noticed that about 80% of our viewers are not actually subscribed to the channel so if you could go ahead and do myself and the other content

Creators a favor and hit that subscribe button to stay up to date with everything Toronto M beliefs all right guys let’s get right into it the player I am talking about of course who is not playing up to standard this year in my eyes at least is Mitch Marner Mitch

Marner is certainly struggling this year we’ll get into it obviously over point a game player uh so it seems kind of weird to say that he is struggling but for his standards not not the greatest season so far and we’ll go right back to last night’s game to start there um you know

This tweet here from Leaf burner 97 now keep in mind obviously not a reporter or anything all right but just some some view that uh I share with this account as well so Mitch had near 23 minutes of ice time last night and did absolutely

Nothing and it’s true he did a whole lot of you know Dipsy doodling in the neutral zone and a little bit against you know on the the near boards uh in the offensive zone and you know didn’t do much offensively whatsoever um and ke has zero uh you know to shift the guys

Going uh to to shift the guys to get the guys going um or to you know for someone to take a seat he doesn’t bench any of the top players ever they’re always out there one after another always going uh and that’s something I’ve been critical of uh especially since he’s taken over

Um there’s you know very little accountability in the top six I find uh he has had no problem benching uh players in the past and even puszi earlier there season I do have to give him credit for that uh Michael bunting in the past but uh it seems like there

Is zero accountability for the top guys at times because Mitch can do all this Dipsy doodling that he did in London in his Junior days and um he doesn’t get bench for it in a game where they need a goal and they should have killed Ottawa if you really think about it ottawa’s

Last in the conference they’re really struggling Captain Brady kachuck came out last week and said this is the you know the worst he’s felt in the NHL like it’s just not a good vibe right now um and the Leafs let them be them on home

ICE that’s not a good sign uh and you know obviously Marner uh Matthews had a good game uh didn’t score you know basically did but I went off nice skate um but Marner did not in my eyes did not have a great uh game and the Leafs to

Pivot from Marner for a second I do want to get back to Marner but to Pivot from Marner the Leafs have been playing down to competition this year and it’s been a problem for as long as I can remember really uh that they’ve been good at

Least uh they are two five- two against Buffalo Columbus Chicago and Ottawa four of the bottom seven teams in the NHL and they’re 154 and four against everybody else this year uh because of course because of course they are the Toronto Maple Leafs and this is what they do

They play down to their competition it’s very odd I thought they came out and started the game well last night like a lot of energy not like their usual s where they get scored on First and they look dead in the first 10 minutes um you know I thought they started the game

Pretty good uh but this has been a problem and next game against columb they’ll probably come out the same way flat uh they just don’t seem like they’re ready to go half the time and I don’t know what that is I don’t know if that’s a mental preparedness thing uh

That the players aren’t doing that they’re saying they’re doing uh if it’s Keith just not getting them pumped up before the game I don’t know what it is but they have to address that because it’s an issue it is absolutely an issue it’s arguably one of the most glaring

Issues they’ve ever had in this era uh under Kei and Babcock so that is absolutely something they have to do but to Pivot back to Marner because he do he does kind of fall into this category as well um let’s take a look let’s just

Take a look at his stats quick all right so this is this year of well all of his stats uh had a pretty good year the last two years of course and then before that some some shortened Seasons uh and some injuries as well uh but if you take a

Look at this year 36 points in 32 games now that is just above point of game player do just a buff point of game players make $1 million in the NHL that’s my question like do they really like if we look at his comparables and

We’re going to um he’s just he’s just a point of game player like it’s nothing fantastic he’s not blowing anyone out of the water he’s just keeping Pace um and I’m not sure that a player of that caliber makes $1 million in the NHL all right um I think Marner and we’ll talk

About playing out of contracts Marner is playing more at a rate of like an8 to9 million player and let’s take a look at another comparable making you know around what Mitch Marner is actually actually making are tamy panan with the New York Rangers this year 46 points in

33 games he’s kind of running away with it he’ll probably finish the you know the the season with I don’t know somewhere north of 110 points maybe 120 points something like that on the pce SE on and the Rangers are doing really really really well um their first in the

Eastern Conference they’ve had a great season uh they’re putting it together and he’s been a big part of that and he makes Difference Maker money so does Mitch Marner so there’s my comparison why aren’t you making a difference in the games uh you come into a game where

You’re playing the worst team in your conference and you lose and you do nothing that’s concerning to me that is not good at all I I’m very concerned about this um moving forward because he does have his contract coming up uh and I think this affects neander as well

Because neander is probably looking at him like I want more than this guy like I’m putting in more work and having a better season anyway I am very concerned uh about Mitch marner’s next contract because he’s going to ask for a lot again uh and I don’t think the Leafs can

Bend and like I just mentioned Neil Ander is looking at Marner right now and going I’m outperforming him on all levels I’m the best Winger on this team I need to make more than him so that’s going to handicap the Leafs there and then when marner’s contract is up uh

He’s going to ask for more and I don’t think he deserves it I think he’s going to take this is going to be the first player in you know entering his Prime with a contract extension coming up that is going to have to take a pay cut cuz

He’s not a bad player like I said point a game play point a game player but he’s not a Difference Maker and he makes Difference Maker money so I feel like there’s going to be a significant pay cut there there has to be to make things

Work for the team or or he’s gone either one but anyway I think he’s really anchoring the team especially in the playoffs because again it’s the same story in the playoffs year and year out with this guy um and yeah he makes Difference Maker money and he doesn’t

Make a difference so you do the math on that you tell me what you think about that uh but anyway let’s talk about let’s let’s shift gears a little bit talk about something a little bit more positive all right Gio is back Gio’s uh looks like he’s going to insert back

Into the lineup against Columbus later this week or I think the game is tomorrow night actually it’s you know in between that week of Christmas and New Year’s everything’s crazy but anyway Gio is back they interviewed Mark gardano uh he feels ready to go which is a great

Sign for leaf fans taking a look at the defense pairings in practice um with Mark Jano Mark jordano coming back mccab shifts to the right side um and he’s going to play with Ben wat I like that pairing actually I think that’s going to add a lot of grit jodano

Is goingon to come in with lilligren like that as well I’m kind of sad that Leon is gonna take a break he’s gonna have to sit now but honestly I think Gio’s just uh obviously a better defenseman veteran uh is going to make a difference so uh it’s going to be nice

To have Gio back in the lineup uh one of my favorite players since he’s come to Toronto on the back end there uh love his fire all right he uh I love everything he brings so to get him back back in the lineup is going to be huge

Uh but I do still think they should give him a break probably around like February is um or even the rest of the way just kind of load manage him uh just because you don’t want him getting too exhausted or tired to run down before the playoffs you need a guy like this

For the playoffs uh so keep him healthy all right um and with that being said last thing I’ll touch on Sheldon Keefe making some questionable decisions not going to lie uh didn’t like last night um in the game against Ottawa pulls the goalie with almost four 4 minutes left

And you’re only down by one I understand if you’re down by two or three but down by one I feel like they were really bringing it to Ottawa and I feel like that empty net with what was it just under three minutes ago kind of killed the game it really killed any momentum

They had and I know they had an offensive zone face off but I feel like they were dictating play up until that point questionable decision in my eyes if you feel differently I don’t blame you but I I didn’t know what was going on with that pull and then another

Questionable decision I know you can’t run Martin Jones into the ground but he’s been playing well minus one goal against the Ottawa Senators but here we are again against Columbus and ilas samsonov is going to go back into the net Sheldon Keef explains why he believes uh having a few days off from

The game benefited Ilia samsonov who looks good in practice according the Keef and um you know samsonov has obviously been struggling prior to the Christmas break and samsonov will start against Columbus in the Leaf’s next game like I said I know you can’t run Martin Jones into the ground but oh boy ilas

Samsonov does not have much confidence right now and I know there’s no other way to build the backup than to play probably you know lesser opponents lesser quality competition uh so it does make sense for him to go in against Columbus but uh I’m a little worried

Because his last game against Buffalo he did not give the team a single chance the team didn’t play well either but he didn’t give them a single chance to win that game so uh should be interesting I’m rooting for him let me just make that clear I’m rooting for ilas samsonov

I hope he finds his confidence I hope he gets everything back uh so he can be the starting goenda net all right I get a little bit nervous because uh I just feel like Martin Jones and uh Joseph wall obviously injured right now but when he does play very calming presence I like

That out of a goenda pull out another win uh against Columbus we’re schedule played them three times in the last like two and a half weeks really odd and then they don’t play them again for the rest of the year uh but hopefully they get another win against Columbus get the

Points you need you desperately need these points against lesser opponents all right um so let me know in the comments what you think about some of the questionable things Keef has been doing lately if you agree with some of the decisions he’s made let me know if

You agree about Mitch marner’s play uh this season I don’t know he this has not been the season of Mitch Marner thus far it’s been quite interesting to watch uh so yeah let me know what you think in the comments and Nick and I I’m sure will be back for another video tomorrow