ok im so new to hockey and ive been getting into leafs and theres just one thing i do not get at all 😭 which is.. is mitchy bad? ive seen people say that he is inconsistent (how long has he been inconsistent?) but ive also seen a LOT of dudebros hockey enthusiasts who say he’s bad and lazy and passes blame and want him to change lines or whatever so i dont really know???
mitch is.... very good actually
let's start with current leafs records: active leader in points, assists, shorthanded goals. franchise leader in empty net goals.
also worth noting Wikipedia updates these stats after every season versus every game; mitch now has upwards of 600 points, and is the second-fastest leaf to 600, ever (he held the record for fastest for about 2 weeks -- auston beat him just after)
he also has the leafs' longest point streak -- 23 games
this is the general leafs leaderboard:
someone appears on that list three times, and it isn't our chosen one am34! (again, this was just up until the end of last season)
Even beyond counting stats, he's still consistently one of the best Leafs around, because he plays defence, is one of the best passers in the league, and penalty-kills. Here's HockeyViz' breakdown of him:
Those two images aren't aligned super well, but we're looking at the sG column on the far right, which is HockeyViz's "overall merit" metric. Here are stars of similar value:
(Obviously, this one guy's metric is not the be-all end-all. But i find it a helpful guideline comparison to similar players -- essentially, Mitch is a one-tick-below superstar, in the tier below your Pastrnaks, M Tkachuks. (who are themselves the tier below Matthews/MacKinnon/Kucherov) "Bad" is a very funny word to use for these players. Bad comparable to McDavid, as if literally everyone else isn't.)
the People Hate Mitch thing is because of this entire personality construct they've developed around him -- he had really tough contract negotiations and signed for "more than he was worth" (aka a reasonable number given expectations of cap rising that did Not take into account a global pandemic coming into effect within a couple years), and the leafs' lack of playoff success (despite the fact that he is the Leafs' active playoff points leader). He's also not super well media trained and never seems to say the right words the right way, even if the obvious sentiment is there, and people who already want to hate on him just take it as further fodder for their complex.
Add that to the "concerns" about his relatively small frame that have been around forever and the ongoing Wendel Clark complex Toronto fans seem to have (ability and/or willingness to drop the gloves = grit = value) and you have a recipe for people that Hate Him For No Reason.
He is absolutely having an off year this year, and I don't know if he's got some nagging injury or whatever, but even in his off year he's one of the best Leafs.
I also think this is partly because of the underrating of Auston Matthews in comparison -- he's a generational goalscoring talent! He's a top three player in the league and he isn't number three! -- that Mitch is deemed "bad," because he's not quite as good as AM34 and we have determined that that means he's somehow Terrible. Sigh.
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thoughts on Ginny and Harry as a couple?
There are a lot of people who find their romance in HBP forced. I don't think it's forced so much as underwritten, and the books don't get the chemistry quite right (though the movies certainly don't, either). There's potential, but they just don't get enough actual scenes of substance (besides Harry thinking she's pretty or feeling jealous of Dean) for a lot of readers to buy that they're not only in love, but deeply enough in love to break up, get back together, and wind up married.
That's not to say I don't see the appeal. There's a very cool scene in Book 5 where Harry's doing a woe-is-me-Chosen-One act, and Ginny effortlessly puts him in his place about it by reminding him that she was possessed by Voldemort at eleven, which is a rare glimpse into her character and also a great synecdoche for their relationship — Ginny is a grounding presence who, like Ron and Hermione, isn't going to be awed by his past adventures because she knew him before they happened. In that respect, Ginny's probably one of the few women Harry could feasibly wind up with, because he only ever seems comfortable around people (let alone girls) who can see past the Chosen-One schtick and treat him like a normo (see: Ron, Hermione, the Weasleys, Luna, Hagrid). True to type, he doesn't get interested in Ginny at all until she's ditched her celebrity crush and ceased to view him as an idol, because in his heart of hearts, Harry wants to be a normal boy, and it's stressed over and over that part of what he likes about his relationship with Ginny is how normal it feels. He kind of has a horribly supercharged version the celebrity dating problem: after the Battle of Hogwarts, anyone he meets is going to know him first as Harry Potter, Chosen One, Boy Who Lived, and Actually Fucking Resurrected Messiah of the Wizarding World, which is... I mean, it's possible that there are witches out there who could get over that, but Harry's not an extroverted guy, and I'm not sure how he'd go about finding them. Ginny's the one who's been there since the beginning, doesn't need anything about him or his past explained to her, and actually likes him for who he is.
When you look at it that way, it's not surprising he married his high school girlfriend. She's one of the few people still alive who doesn't see him as a demigod.
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im actually pretty glad there are at leat a few people that agree with me that totks wordlbuilding/story is disappointing to insulting really
its such a let down and will never stop being a thorn in my side how much build up and potential they wasted with disregarding pretty much everything of botw just to introduce not just less compelling stuff but also kinda undercut what was already there
like im sorry but being able to glue a few sticks together isnt worth sacrificing the buildup from the previous title and quality of the story for
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this book has the ace rep of my dreams. aro/ace & demisexual, about finding yourself and your identity, while falling in love with a vigilante determined to atone for his youth and protect his vampire family
did i mention the lead is an ace-spec, fanfic writing scientist (says the ace fanfic writing scientist?) this book came for my throat. i loved it.
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