Things didn’t exactly end well in Toronto for superstar winger Mitch Marner.
Few things ever “end well” between a franchise and its high-priced, underperforming talent, but the final chapters in the Marner-Maple Leafs saga were especially vitriolic.
You can probably chalk most of that up to the Toronto media, which is about as toxic as it gets when it comes to North American sports, but Marner wasn’t exactly free of blame.
His regular-season point totals were some of the best in the league, but the playoff performances in critical moments were the subject of much scrutiny, so much so that most hockey fans thought all Marner needed was a change of scenery to unlock his postseason potential.
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So far, only nine games into his first postseason south of the Canadian border, Marner is thriving, with his “arrival” coming Friday night in the Las Vegas Golden Knights’ 6-2 beatdown against the Anaheim Ducks.
That’s Marner’s first career playoff hat trick, but it gets even crazier than that.
The 29-year-old had previously played in 70 career playoff games as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and recorded only two multi-goal games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He has two already in nine playoff games with the Golden Knights.
Marner’s high-water mark for goals in an entire postseason before landing in Sin City was three goals, which he obviously matched in Friday’s game alone.
Any way you slice it, Marner is exorcising an entire career’s worth of playoff demons in just one year.
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The big question will be whether he can experience more team success in the postseason with his new club, considering the Golden Knights are in a familiar spot to Marner.
His time in Toronto was notoriously marred by the simple fact that the Leafs were unable to make it past the second round of the playoffs.
With a 2-1 series lead over the Ducks, Vegas is just a couple of wins away from showing its latest addition a side of the postseason he’s never seen before: the Conference Finals.
The sky could be the limit for Marner and this Golden Knights team.
With the big bad bully on the Western Conference block, the Edmonton Oilers, getting sent home early from the big dance, coupled with Marner’s stellar play, Vegas could find its way back to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since winning it all three seasons ago.
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It’s been a perfect marriage so far between Marner and the Golden Knights, and it doesn’t hurt that the Toronto Maple Leafs were so putrid in their first season without the man they ran out of town that they are now in position to draft yet another future star (Gavin McKenna) to foist lofty expectations onto.
Godspeed, Gavin.
If things get bad enough for you, you can always move on to greener pastures and resurrect your career.
If it worked for Marner, it can work for you, too.
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