Young stars dealing with both ups and downs
A bad skate after a bad loss is part of the daily grind in NHL regular season
Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews refused to even acknowledge “the grind” as part of the reason behind the Maple Leafs’ unacceptable effort in Tuesday’s loss to the Kings.
There is, however, no question the two rookie forwards are discovering exactly what the famous phrase means at the NHL level.
In short, it means commitment to hockey like never before.
“It’s part of the grind, it’s something (where) you have to make sure to take care of your body,” Marner said Wednesday.
Leafs coach Mike Babcock put his charges through a heavy skating workout Wednesday, even through a power outage at the club’s MasterCard practice facility, which drove home the responsibility each player must bear for Tuesday’s unacceptable performance.
Babcock referred to it as “penance,” but for Marner and Matthews it was another eye-opening experience from the first month of their NHL careers. The 19-year-olds are quickly learning how demanding, both mentally and physically, the regular season can be.
“When you go through it, your legs feel tired, but after, you feel fine, you go home and rest up the rest of the day,” Marner said about Wednesday’s practice, arguably the most demanding skate of the season so far.
Tuesday’s 7-0 loss to the dominating Kings emphasized how much work the Leafs must do as a group to achieve the elite level of play displayed by Los Angeles. That means even more grinding, more skating, and more attention to details. Another popular word — “heavy” — surfaced after the Kings game, and it applied to the need for the players to compete harder in the corners and in one-on-one battles.
The challenge can be daunting for a rookie, going through it for the first time.
“Yeah, obviously the message received (Tuesday) was we weren’t good enough,” Matthews said.
Matthews, Marner and 20-year-old William Nylander have all had their moments in the first month of the season. After Tuesday’s games, Ny- lander was second to Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine in rookie scoring with 12 points in 13 games, with Matthews third (11) and Marner tied for fourth (10).
But Babcock shuffled his lines for the first time Tuesday in an attempt to shake up the team after it fell short on compete level. As a result, Marner and Matthews wound up skating together on a line in the third period.
Matthews wasn’t even thinking the line changes were indicative of a situation where some players — especially19-year-old rookies — were falling slightly behind the demands of the season so far.
“No . . . every team goes through it,” Matthews said. “When you have a game like that, you have to expect that . . . and you have to come back and work harder than before.”