The Toronto Maple Leafs officially wrapped up their season today at Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto. The players cleaned out their lockers, met with team officials and gave one final media availability for broadcasters.
The biggest throng of reporters centered around Leafs forward Mitch Marner, who has come under incredible fire from the team's fanbase for a perceived lack of effort during the post-season. Marner had a pretty dreadful series against the Boston Bruins... something that has become all too familiar for people who follow this team.
So... what did Marner have to say to those fans? Did he apologize for his lack of effort? Did he take personal accountability for his team's lack of playoff success?
No... not even close.
Marner compared himself and his teammates to "Gods" and extolled the virtues of playing for people who worship the Leafs.
I mean, just listen to this guy:
Are you kidding me!?!
You know how people feel about you Mitch and you give them a line like, "We're looked upon as Gods here..." ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?
Just zero sense of awareness from this guy.
Meanwhile, fellow Leafs teammate Auston Matthews answered questions about his mystery illness and/or injury that he suffered in the first round and... well... honestly, he didn't have much clarity on the matter.
When asked what he was suffering through, Matthews only said that he got "really, really sick after Game 2," and then in Game 4 he took a "weird hit."
Check it out:
Matthews explicitly says that he's not going to go into details, but the more and more I hear from him, I'm certain that he's been suffering through concussion issues. He does mention 'flu like symptoms' from his earlier lineup absence, but I can't help but think that some of his symptoms may have been the result of post-concussion issues. Again, this is entirely speculation on my part but I would not be surprised in the least if news breaks at some point that Matthews did indeed suffer a concussion early on in the series.
