Marner had one eye on the future at worlds
Twenty-year-old wants to be prepared to play deep into spring in the coming years
Mitch Marner has heard about the sophomore jinx.
And he is fully aware if he or any of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ core of 2016-17 rookies take a step backward next year, the team will be in trouble.
The now 20-year-old is fairly confident that won’t happen, that the jinx isn’t real and that the steps will only be forward. That’s a big reason why he took up the challenge of playing for Canada at the recently completed world championship. He wanted to press himself, to play an elongated season, because that’s the future he believes is in store for the Maple Leafs.
“I want to make sure my body is ready play through a long season,” Marner said.
“That was one of the reasons to go the world championship, to make sure my body is able to play for a month longer.
“It wasn’t easy, the teams were hard to play against, they all had great players . . . You’re not playing against Stanley Cup teams but they were very good-calibre teams. It was important for me to go there and make sure my body could take it.”
Marner was one of Canada’s top players, finishing second on team scoring with four goals and eight assists.
The Canadians came away with a silver medal, losing in a shootout to Sweden and Marner’s Leafs teammate, William Nylander.
“He hasn’t said anything to me yet, but I’m sure I’ll hear about that from him,” Marner said. “But the day will come when it’s the other way around, hopefully.
“It sucks how it went down, but that’s hockey. Things happen. But it was a great month.”
It helped that Canada started the tournament in Paris, where the team could see the sights. Marner was accompanied by his parents, his brother and his girlfriend.
“I met a lot of new guys, that was sweet, too,” he said. “Playing against world-class talent, and playing with world-class talent, was unbelievable.
“Being in Paris was an experience that will last a lifetime. The city was amazing. Getting to go up the Eiffel Tower and eating at that restaurant with my family, I was pretty fortunate to get to do that.”
Marner will be rooting for another teammate, Auston Matthews, to win the Calder Trophy as a rookie of the year later this month. The two became close through the season. When Marner returned to Toronto from the worlds, photographed with a baseball cap on backwards, Matthews was one of the many that tweeted memes of Marner’s schoolboy look, including one that had Marner looking as if he was waiting for a yellow school bus.
“I’m howling at some of these memes people are making. Very creative. It’s all fun,” Marner said. “I was coming off 48 hours (of ) no sleep, I’m just trying to get home to go to bed. Got me good.
“My family has enjoyed it. Matthews liked the one with the school bus. We’re keeping it light with each other.”
This will be a different kind of summer for Marner. He doesn’t have to worry about orientation or rookie camps, or Canadian junior camps. He’ll have a summer simply to get ready for next season.
“It’s going to be great. It will be a full summer of training and making sure we’re ready to for next season,” he said.
“It’s going to be a lot of hard work, but I’m very excited for it.”