Maple Leafs’ Mitch Marner conjures Boston magic: ‘Breathing through my eyelids’
Suddenly, Boston is a happy place for Mitch Marner. On the heels of his 4 Nations heroics, Marner scored the overtime winner for the Leafs on Tuesday in Beantown.
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BOSTON — Mitch Marner was so gassed when the Toronto Maple Leafs forced overtime, he couldn’t see who scored the tying goal with 46 seconds left in regulation.
And yet, the best-on-best champion summoned enough from his depleted tank to undress Team America–slash–Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman in overtime and produce his second clock-freezing victory at TD Garden in six nights.
“Big goal at 6-on-5 there by … I think it was (Pontus) Holmberg,” said Marner, half undressed and half out of breath following a raucous 5-4 comeback win Tuesday. “Couldn’t even see. I was breathing through my eyelids, kind of. But we didn’t quit, and that’s something you like to see out of our team.”
OK, so let’s get this straight.
Boston — site of three heartbreaking Game 7 losses for these Maple Leafs — is now governed by Mayor Marner?
“I don’t know about that. I mean, I’ve had a couple tough, really gut-wrenching things in this building, as well as some great memories,” Marner said. “I’m just trying to go out there and do my thing.”
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Marner was held pointless in Toronto’s back-to-back weekend wins over Carolina and Chicago, and was in danger of extending his point drought to a season-long three games before his third-period power-play snipe helped dig a slow-to-rev Leafs group out of 3-0 hole to the white-flag-waving Bruins.
The star winger admits that playing against the toughest competition of his life with Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, while most of the league caught its wind, “was taxing, for sure.” He wasn’t satisfied with his own effort over the weekend, as coach Craig Berube mindfully kept Marner’s and Auston Matthews’ minutes under 20.
“Starting to get my energy back, slowly,” Marner said.
Well, he needed it.
Marner logged an exhausting 25:41 in the win — more than any Bruin and any Leafs forward.
In addition to getting tossed over the boards on both special teams, Marner logged a wild 97-second shift with goalie Anthony Stolarz pulled late, then followed that up with a 78-second haul in 3-on-3 to prevent a Bruins dagger before catching a breath and hopping back on to end the thing himself.
“Just the resilience. He’s someone who is a catalyst of our team,” Stolarz raved. “You look at him: He was out there for like a minute and a half, and instead of changing, he stays on in the D-zone there at the end. He’s not trying to cheat the game, and he knows that it’s his responsibility to stay there and play a defensive game. It’s late, and he ends up getting the change and making a good play. Gets off and gets back out there and scores the goal for us.
“Definitely something that was deserved by him for his two-way play tonight.”
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Morgan Rielly, Marner’s longest-serving teammate, helped set up the winner on a three-point night in which the defenceman reached 500 for his career.
Rielly says Marner hasn’t changed much since returning to the Leafs with a gold medal.
“That just speaks to the character,” Reilly said. “It would be easy for him to sort of change or get caught up in hanging out with all the big dogs. But he just comes back, and he’s right back to his old self. We love him.”
“For sure,” Berube said when asked if fatigue plagued Marner and Matthews in their immediate return from high-stakes, higher-emotions hockey.
“But they’re grinding through it. We’re trying to help them as much as we can for rest purposes. We’re going to have to do that going forward here, too, for a little bit.”
Matthews, the reigning Rocket Trophy champ, hasn’t scored on a goaltender in 10 games now (including the three he played with Team USA at 4 Nations), but he assisted on Marner’s winner and generated several dangerous looks.
The Leafs are striving to fend off Florida and Tampa for first place in the Atlantic Division while being thrust into a hectic schedule on the heels of 4 Nations: nine games in eight cities over 17 days.
“The break is a lot for the mental (aspect), just stepping away a little bit, and a lot of guys have been able to do that,” teammate Steven Lorentz said. “But these guys have just been go, go, go.”
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Matthews skated 22:41 in Tuesday’s win, as the coach blew past his self-imposed time limit for the superstars.
“(Mitch) and Auston have been a little bit tired for me, but I thought they showed a lot of grit tonight, a lot of determination,” Berube said. “But Mitch had a heck of a game.
“They’re a little wiped out, so I mindfully tried to keep their minutes under 20, which I think I’ve done a good job (at). But tonight, I didn’t. It worked out.”
For Marner, in this barn, everything is starting to.
Fox’s Fast Five
• Might be something, might be nothing:
William Nylander was out pressing for a 77-second shift at the end of the third period but curiously never touched the ice in 3-on-3 overtime — where he’s particularly dangerous.
“Something was bothering him,” Berube said, “so he didn’t go in the overtime.”
Nylander was seen holding his wrist or hand on the television broadcast.
• Massachusetts native Jim Gaudreau, the proud uncle of Johnny and Matthew, grew close with Leafs GM Brad Treliving.
Leafs management — which is travelling in full — invited Jim to take in the team’s morning skate with them from the TD Garden stands. A touching gesture.
The Gaudreau brothers’ tragic passing has hit this town hard, as evidenced by Boston’s spontaneous and voluminous “Johnny Hockey!” chants during the USA-Canada 4 Nations championship game.
• Calle Järnkrok (sports hernia) is traveling with the Leafs for the first time all season and sure looks like a man who could make his season debut any day now.
“He’s close. He’s very close. There’s some things that have to be done with … you know, stuff,” said a comically vague Berube.
Järnkrok’s $2.1-million salary has been tucked away on LTIR, and the cap-tight Leafs have maximized their active roster slots, so management will need to do some stickhandling before giving Järnkrok — who has a doctor’s appointment coming up shortly — the green light.
When the two-way winger does return, we expect a look in the top six.
“Very intelligent player,” Berube said. “Checks a lot of boxes: penalty killing and end-of-game [shifts], faceoffs. Like, he can play any position. He’s a real complementary player with good players, which is nice to have.”
• Boston’s Mason Lohrei will be leaned upon more heavily with the long-term injuries to fellow defencemen Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm.
After getting a promotion to PP1 and helping set up the game’s first two goals, the 24-year-old is already up to 24 assists in his first full NHL season — despite clocking under 19 minutes a night.
Nice platform campaign for an impending RFA with arbitration rights.
• Chris Tanev suffered an upper-body injury from a first-period check into the end-boards by forechecker Johnny Beacher, ending his night.
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The Leafs defenceman left the rink with his right arm in a sling and will be evaluated further on Wednesday.
