Breaking News: Mitch Marner Shines as Leafs Overcome Extreme Challenges Against Oilers
The good, the terrible, and the ugly: A night in the Maple Leafs’ lives.
Even when Taylor Swift-a-palooza rolls into town a few blocks away, the spotlight never dims on Toronto’s hockey stage.
Shake-shaking off the barrelhousing Edmonton Oilers, 4-3 in overtime.
Mitch Marner broke up a two-on-one in his end before racing back up the ice for an unassisted winner 40 seconds into overtime.
“I just saw back pressure. Just tried to play two-on-one the best I could, tried to read the pass there, lucky I was able to do it. Then just tried to jump up the ice quickly.’’ With John Tavares on his flank. “Saw an opening there and I took it.
“I tried to play with fun and excitement out there. Those are games you kind of live for. Lucky enough got the shot, saw it and it went in.’’
Goalie Anthony Stolarz, starting his 12th game for the Leafs, had only a distant, appreciating view: “It’s just another day for Mitch Marner.”
Marner commented on Stolarz’s 27-save seventh win: “I was actually more pleased to see Stolarz. I was planning to go all the way down, but I became too lazy.
A thrilling end to an extremely interesting game.
“Saturday night hockey,’’ main attraction Connor McDavid had said, as if no further words were necessary to describe the zing of the thing for a kid spawned in Richmond Hill, with friends and family in the house watching an encounter stuffed with thrills and spills and drama and wind shear speed.
Sadly, not much of a one-shot Eras Tour for the two greatest offensive players of their generation — this Edmonton’s single regular-season visit to Toronto, with Auston Matthews still injury sidelined. So no duel at the OK Corral on Bay Street between Matthews and McDavid, fresh off unloading his gun at the 1,000th-point beer can.
This past fortnight saw a remarkable turnaround of fortune for the Oilers, who started out of the gate sluggish and shambolic, not looking like the squad that came within one overtime goal of winning the Stanley Cup the previous spring.
McDavid has excelled against the Leafs, with 35 career points, 11 goals, and 24 assists in 23 games. In 19 games against the Oilers, Matthews has 13 goals and eight helpers.
Make that an even dozen for McDavid, who did indeed have his moments on this evening. A power-play goal put the Oilers up early in the second period, with John Tavares in the box for hooking. Just his seventh goal of the season, far off the McDavid career tempo. Fluke luck as a puck bounced fortuitously off Jake McCabe’s stick, popping directly to McDavid facing a yawning open net with Stolarz way over on the opposite post.
The kind of happenstance you can’t prepare for, as all the Leafs had keenly prepared for McDavid’s arrival. “It takes a collective effort out there to slow him down,’’ McCabe had observed earlier.
Echoed by Chris Tanev: “It takes a whole team to play good defence for 60 minutes against him.’’ Like, how? “Try to get above him, manage the puck. You don’t want to give him odd-man rushes, especially three-quarters ice and at their blue line. That’s where they can catch you.’’
It was in the 21st minute of this encounter when McDavid scored, and the 30th minute when he showed a different, more ornery side to his game — taking down Tavares with a clothesline shove to the head, fingered as holding. With 57 seconds left in that penalty, McDavid was joined on the prie-dieu bench of shame by teammate by Mattias Ekholm, who’d cross-checked Matthew Knies into the net. And still the Leafs couldn’t score on the worst penalty-killing team in the league.
Shortly before those twin episodes came the ugly: Ryan Reaves obliterating Darnell Nurse with a full-body heave-ho that put a lot of shoulder into the head. The linchpin D-man was just coming out from behind his net when he got kayoed by Reaves, who may or may not have intended to inflict that kind of damage with his thunderous bodycheck, but there was blood all over Nurse’s visor and on the ice anyway.
Reaves was handed a five-minute major penalty and an early shower for an illegal hit to the head. Yet the Leafs held off the Oilers, a team that had been rounding out to its expected offensive form in the past fortnight. That seemed to rattle Edmonton.
And just because we’re on the McDavid subject, his niftiest move of the night (scarcely noticed) occurred when he swept behind the Toronto net, where Morgan Rielly was standing stationary with the puck — considering his breakout move — and McDavid just casually lifted the puck off his stick. What the hell was that?
The game opened at a fast pace, showcasing the matching speed and on-the-fly creativity of both teams. The Oilers struck first, just 1:42 into the game, when a pass caromed off Rielly’s stick to Adam Henrique, who chipped the bouncing puck past Stolarz. Again rotten luck, but the episode was preceded by a two-on-one break for Edmonton and Henrique got to the puck before Rielly.
Bobby McMann pulled the Leafs even shortly after when Marner knocked the puck off McDavid’s stick in a brilliant passing play with Tavares that finished with McMann sliding a goal between Stuart Skinner’s pads.
McMann actually outperformed McDavid with two goals, including a 3-2 lead for the Leafs at 14:07 in the third, but Leon Draisaitl answered with less than two minutes remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime. Where Marner performed his mind-blowing up-down-in number for career goal number 200.
On a rare night when the Leafs were the second most expensive ticket in town, they delivered a Swiftie-worthy performance.
