What’s behind Marner’s awful scoring slump?

There’s no denying the biggest strength for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The team’s dynamic offense is the envy of the league with young players like Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner leading the way.  The kids can fill the net like no other trio in the NHL and yet, there are still concerns from the Toronto media regarding the team’s current and future stars. Are the concerns founded? Or simply nonsense?

TSN analyst Travis Yost takes a deep dive on Leafs sophomore Marner and attempts to uncover some reasons for his recent scoring slump. The 20-year old star has just two goals in 25 games this season, but has chipped in a respectable 14 assists to bring his point total to 16. While that’s not a horrendous start, he is on pace for 53 points after all, it is a step back from the 19 goals and 61 points he managed in his rookie season.

So, what’s the problem? According to Yost:

First: Marner’s shot volume is down year-over-year. Shot volume, as always, remains the biggest driver of goal-scoring. As shot volume moves, so too (generally speaking) does goal-scoring. 

Second: the quality of shots – defined as shots generated from the home plate scoring area – are also down. Combine a reduction in shot quantity with a reduction in shot quality, and you have a problem.

So… the solution? SHOOT! Both of Yost’s points stand to reason, if you want to score more you have to shoot more. If you want to shoot more, you have to be in position to shoot more. Makes sense, right? So, how does Marner go about accomplishing these things? More ice time with talented teammates like Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk should help. But regardless of who he’s playing with Marner has to make a better effort to get to the middle of the ice. Outside of elite snipers like Steven Stamkos, it’s tough to rack up points from the outside. Marner is going to have to muscle or finesse his way to the dirty areas of the game if he’s going to bust out of his slump.

Something tells us though that he’ll be juuuuuuuust fine.