It was the type of performance to turn the most ardent optimists into reluctant cynics.
During a season where Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner has been subject to round-the-clock speculation about his contract, his impending future and his legacy with the Maple Leafs, the 28-year-old was presented with a golden opportunity to put the critics to rest. Marner posted a 102-point regular season where he was asked to play in all situations, which invited his detractors to pose the simple but recurring existential question: let’s see Marner do it in the playoffs!
After Marner failed to register a shot in two consecutive Maple Leafs’ losses, the pressure was mounting on the dynamic winger to elevate his game. If he wanted to be paid handsomely as the highest-paid winger in the NHL, a timely performance at home against the defending champions provided a perfect forum to him to show one team — whether it’s the Leafs, or otherwise — to not only give him the bag, but everything he desired. If the goal was to silence his critics within the market and secure his legacy with the Leafs, an excellent game from Marner would accelerate the process of getting him a banner hanging adjacent from the Foster Hewitt Media Gondola.
All of this was for the taking. And while the series isn’t technically over, Marner submitted a performance Wednesday night that left his supporters leaving the building in a mix of muted contempt and disbelief. This could be his final home game with the Leafs and the enduring image of the homegrown winger won’t be pretty if that’s indeed the case. Marner rejected the notion it could be his last home game at Scotiabank Arena, but that door has been pried open after Wednesday’s no-show.
Marner was dreadful in Game 5, as the Maple Leafs lost 6-1 to the Panthers. Through the first period, the Panthers out-chanced Marner, Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies 11-1, outshot them 6-0 and outscored them 1-0. And they weren’t mere passengers on the goal, either. Matthews was hemmed behind the net, while Marner didn’t move his feet, staring idly by as the Panthers worked the puck around and Ekblad fired it past an exhausted Joseph Woll.
Woll, for what it’s worth, was eventually pulled in the third period as the Maple Leafs had fully capitulated by then and it didn’t even register. The home crowd was already staring into the abyss.
If Marner’s passivity on Ekblad’s opening goal wasn’t bad enough, he made a blunder that will live in infamy across Leafs Nation, unless he helps the team engineer a comeback against the Panthers this series. Trailing 2-0 in the second period, Marner skated up the wall in his defensive zone with the puck, appearing to make a routine exit. Marner had other plans though, as he stopped, turned around and tossed a pass up the middle of the ice in what could be best described as a botched spin-o-rama. The attempt was easily intercepted by Gustav Forsling, who one-touched the puck back up to Sam Reinhart. Marner skated back into his defensive zone half-heartedly, and Jesper Boqvist, who was only reinserted into the Panthers’ lineup due to an injury to Evan Rodrigues, skated right by Marner to the puck in at the back post. It was 3-0 Panthers, and it may have been the moment that crushed any optimism surrounding Marner, nearing the end of his ninth year with the Maple Leafs.
“I thought tonight was really the first night that we didn’t reply well or play our game,” Marner said post-game. “We do that against a team like that over there, they’re going to make you pay and that’s what they did.”
It was a blank canvas for Marner entering the playoffs. He bet on himself as it relates to the open market, and even if you take free agency out of the equation, he was merely asked to present a reasonable facsimile of his regular season form, where he looked like one of the NHL’s best wingers. A middling performance wouldn’t satisfied the frothing masses, but it would come to pass. Marner was dreadful, with several critical blunders, showing zero willingness to engage in puck battles or close out on Panthers’ forwards. He had every opportunity to silence his critics and write new narratives alike.
“I don’t think anyone’s happy about it,” Marner said. “Time to reset. Time to refocus. Get ready for our flight tomorrow to Florida, get ready to play a hockey game.”
Marner wasn’t singled out after a horrific loss and both Matthews, and Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube emphasized it was a team effort post-game. It’s clear that Marner had the most to gain with a seismic win but instead, he played arguably the worst game of his career.
“Everybody’s got to look in the mirror, myself included,” Matthews said post-game. “Everybody wants to be better. Everybody wants to obviously win. We’ve been a great road team all season long. There’s always going to be a belief in this group.”
Once again, the Leafs are on the brink of elimination but this year certainly feels different. It may be Marner’s last season with the Maple Leafs, a period where he’s produced 741 points in 657 regular season games, a rate that should qualify him as one of the best players in the franchise’s 107-year history. When the lights are the brightest, Marner shrinks. And he was actively detrimental to his team’s cause in a stunning 6-0 loss. Anything short of this assessment is willful optimism masquerading as wish fulfilment.
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