Marner's postgame comments after Oilers game disturbing

This Mitch Marner quote was all over X last night and for good reason.

“We gotta ignore what everyone else says. We know we're a great hockey team. We show up every night. I mean, this last four games that we've had leads, we've played some awesome hockey, some great hockey.”

This comment was made after the club suffered its fourth straight blown-lead loss (third straight in regulation). Toronto has only four regulation wins in their last 14 games, two of which were against the San Jose Sharks.

Yup, that's some great hockey alright.

Now, there are those who think what Marner said was OK. One could say he decided to remain positive during this bleak period of the season. He wanted to showcase a sense of belief in the dressing room, that everything was, in fact, going to be alright. I mean, they are playing "great hockey" according to him.

That's not how I see it.

I see a lack of accountability. I see a player unwilling to accept the fact the team he plays on has blown a lot of leads all season long (the club's defensive metrics will tell you they're nowhere near where they were a year ago). Take away the 'loser' overtime loss points and Marner's great hockey club is actually .500.

Now granted, it's not all his fault. I'm well aware. But with great contracts, come great responsibility (or something like that...) And with that responsibility comes a sense of reading the room, a sense of honesty when it comes to the hockey team he plays for.

This wouldn't have been such a story in Leafs land today if Marner doled out a one-liner like 'we've got to be better' or 'it wasn't good enough'. This defiant-like approach to the media when things get tough is not a good look and this isn't the first time he's gotten defensive in the postgame scrums.

But instead, all you did was pour more gas on the fire and it got some fiery reactions from some of the noteworthy media in Toronto including JD Bunkis who went on a rant to open his show on Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, James Mirtle also had a few things to say about Marner in the latest Leaf Report.

All in all, Mitch isn't doing himself any favours with this stuff and it's time for him to grow up.