Lots of emotions await Marleau
The newest Leafs will play in San Jose for first time since signing with Toronto
Prior to a pair of troubling home losses, Mike Babcock didn’t care when or where Patrick Marleau would notch his 100th career game-winning goal.
Now, you can move that milestone way up on the coach’s calendar.
“(Monday) would be a nice night to get it,” Babcock observed as his suddenly struggling Maple Leafs head west on a four-game trip that begins with Marleau’s much anticipated return to San Jose.
Not that Babcock wants to put any more pressure on Marleau, who is coming back to his first NHL home in visiting colours after 19 years as a front-line Shark, their one-time captain and a community pillar. Is Marleau ready for what’s expected to be a warm reception, topped by a mushy video tribute?
“No, not really,” Marleau admitted at the thought of holding back some water works at the SAP Center. “I think there will be a lot of emotions going back.”
Marleau’s house is still there, where his four kids were born, with the whole family going back for the ceremony. Their presence might make it even harder for him to hold it together, never mind looking across the line at Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski and the other long-serving Sharks with whom he spent the majority of more than 1,500 NHL games. He owns a cache of team scoring and longevity records and many see this as a dry run for a No. 12 sweater retirement there down the road.
“Hopefully, there will be someone beside me making jokes (on the Leaf bench) or something,” Marleau said. “Doing something like that to keep things light.”
Marleau says his attention should centre on his present team’s predicament, needing to start this swing off on the right foot. The Leafs have lost three of their last four games, a market correction after a 6-1 start.
“That’s the most important thing,” Marleau said. “It will be good to get it done with (dealing with the homecoming hoopla now instead of later in the season). I look forward to getting things back on track for us and getting a win.”
The first 11 games in Toronto have been a modest success for Marleau, who turned 38 during training camp and anxious to prove the Leafs did well by adding his experience for three years at US $18.75 million.
“He was the right 38-year-old for us,” said Toronto general manager Lou Lamoriello in response to critics of the signing. Marleau has seven points to date and one gamewinner, 32 shots on goal, has seen time on power play and the penalty kill and stepped into the circle on Saturday against the Flyers to win four of five draws.
But the Leafs fell 4-2 on the heels of a 6-3 loss to Carolina and now have the ever-difficult task to getting past the Sharks, Ducks and Kings on home ice with a stop in St. Louis on the way back.
“It’s whoever plays their system to a T for the longest, for a full 60 minutes,” Marleau said of what the Leafs have lacked the past while. “We’ve had lapses and that’s where the other team have been able to score. But those are things that are in our power to fix. We just have to fix it sooner rather than later.”
Marleau was projected by many to play the left side with Auston Matthews when he was signed, but Babcock elected to keep digging winger Zach Hyman there and put Marleau with Nazem Kadri. An injury to James van Riemsdyk led to an experiment Saturday with a new pivot, Tyler Bozak.
At some point in the next three seasons, Marleau is seen as a player who can help put the young Leafs over the top for a Stanley Cup, which eluded him in San Jose.
“I don’t really think about that too much,” Marleau said of being shut out as a Shark. “When it’s brought up, you think about it for a second, but you try to put it the side.
“We had some really good teams and still fell short and didn’t win the Cup. It goes to show how hard it is to win. Everything has to align for you. It still gives me something to strive for (as a Leaf ).”
Connor Brown hopes the night goes well for Marleau.
“You become a fixture in an organization like that and I can’t imagine how tough it is to leave,” said Brown, who gave up his No. 12 when Marleau arrived. “It’s going to be a special night for an awesome, down-to-earth guy.”