Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, & Matthew Knies Deliver Shocking Bad Defensive Performance Against Carolina
Toronto Maple Leafs forwards Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Matthew Knies were horrible defensively against the Carolina Hurricanes and we have the stats to prove it.
While Auston Matthews may have scored a goal against the Carolina Hurricanes, that did not excuse him of an atrocious defensive performance that had him on the ice for all six Carolina goals.
Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies, and Mitch Marner get lit up
Of course, the first line is always going to get the most playing time, so it is no shock that Matthews, Knies, and Marner were on for plenty of goals against.
However, when you look at each player's net rating from last night, you realize just how bad of a night they had.
Matthews was a -6, while Marner was also a -6 and Knies was a -5. Needless to say, that is not winning hockey.
After the game, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube explained exactly what went down and why the game was a failure in the end.
I thought we spent too much time in our own zone in general going forward, especially in the second period. We need to kill more plays and come up with more pucks. We didn't.
It kind of got away from us.»
At this stage, you definitely expect better from your top players, however, bad nights are going to happen over the course of an 82-game season.
If anything, the Maple Leafs will have to use this as a learning experience for when the more important games come around later in the season.
On Saturday, the Leafs take on a much weaker opponent in the Vancouver Canucks.
For the team to maintain its lead in the Atlantic Division standings, this is going to be a must-win game.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 10 | 146 ANSWERS Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, & Matthew Knies Deliver Shocking Bad Defensive Performance Against Carolina Do you believe the Toronto Maple Leafs were bad against the Carolina Hurricanes? | ||
| YES | 132 | 90.4 % |
| NO | 14 | 9.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
