Mitch Marner, perhaps accidentally, insults Maple Leafs non-stars

Sometimes, things don’t come out as intended. When a player says one thing but doesn’t necessarily mean it in the way that it was taken by the press or fan base that heard it, the backlash can be painful. 

In Toronto, it’s especially problematic because their fan base, as passionate as they are, can be quite toxic, even to the biggest stars on the team. 

It’s a situation Mitch Marner now potentially faces as blowback from a comment he made that seemed to be said with a positive tone, but came out as a passive-aggressive, backhanded dig at the members of the team who are not in the “core four”.

For a few years now, the narrative surrounding the Maple Leafs is that they haven’t won and the stars on the team haven’t delivered when the franchise needs it most. A typically strong regular season club, this group of players — featuring Marner, Auston Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares — hasn’t been able to secure more than a single-round victory in any of the post-seasons in which they’ve appeared. It’s not good enough, yet the team has seemingly decided to roll it back with the same core for the upcoming season.

It would be one thing if those stars simply said they haven’t been good enough. Fans might still not like going back to the same well again, but at least those top-tier, highly-compensate stars would be taking responsibility. That’s not the approach Marner took.

As pointed out by The Steve Dangle Podcast (SDPN), Marner spoke to the media and said the following:

“Brad [Treliving] came in and defended us all, really, and our team. It meant a lot for us that he came in and did that. It’s not just four guys on our team, it’s a full team effort every single night. It’s not the narrative a lot of times, but we all know we gotta be better and that’s what we’re excited to do when we get the season going.”