Marner unlikely to miss his moment
Rookie has proven to be a big-game performer
It may be easy to forget Mitch Marner is still just 19 years old.
But Marner is no ordinary 19-yearold, even amongst one of the finest crops of teenagers the NHL has seen in recent memory. Marner, as Leafs coach Mike Babcock likes to refer to, is the “driver” of his line with Tyler Bozak and James van Reimsdyk.
Only Marner hasn’t lived up to that compliment for the Leafs’ last two games against Washington. And his line as under the spotlight after a sub-par performance in Game 5. Fair or not, more is expected of the line, and of Marner.
Babcock says, if he knows anything about the rookie, he will bounce back with a top-shelf performance.
“I just think he’s like all young players when you start, it goes away on you in a hurry . . . you can’t believe there’s no space,” Babcock said Saturday. “But no one loves hockey more than Mitch Marner and no one’s more competitive than Mitch. We talked about that here today, he’ll be great. The other thing about Mitch is he’s a big-moment guy.”
Marner and his linemates were somewhat perplexing in Game 5. In Corsi-for and Corsi-against figures — basically, shot attempts for and against the line while they were on the ice — Marner and his mates topped the Leafs. And through five games in this series, van Riemsdyk leads the Leafs with 20 shots on goal, while Bozak is sixth (12) and Marner seventh (nine).
But what stood out for that line was the lack of valid offensive threats they had in Game 5. While they created shot attempts, their dangerous scoring chances were thwarted by over-passing and inconsistency in penetrating the Capitals’ coverage in front of their own net.
That was a problem with the Leafs overall; they created 63 shot attempts as a team, but managed one goal, and were troubled with the Capitals’ checking at mid-ice and in their own zone.
The Bozak-Marner-van Riemsdyk line is also a key component of the Leafs’ power play, which went 0for-4.
“It’s not easy to produce in the playoffs. It’s a lot tighter, there’s a lot less opportunities,” Bozak said. “(Marner) got a big goal for us early in the series (the first of the series) to kind of get us going. He’s had a few assists since then. I think he’s doing fine. I think our power play can be a little bit better; I don’t think it was great last game. It’s been decent before that. We’re going to have to have everything going in Game 6.”
Babcock can no longer be patient at this point in the season. The coach said earlier that “the adjustment period is over” for Marner and the rest of his rookie stars.
But Marner has firmly established a confidence level in his coach. It’s now a matter of reaffirming it. That goes the same for his line.
“Obviously, Mitch has been a real driver for us all year long and I still think he is,” Babcock said. “It’s just a little play here and there. He’s just got to dig in. The other thing about guys who score and feed off having the puck, sometimes in the playoffs you never get the puck. So you’ve got to come to grips with that and enjoy the touches you do have and work hard to get it back.
“We went through it today with them and basically what they do well and what they’ve got to do to be successful in this series . . . There’s not a lot of scoring chances. So you go long moments in the game where nothing happens. You’ve got to overcome that and just keep grinding so that when you do get your chances you continue to play the same way. I think that is the biggest thing.
“When you go through everybody’s line in the series, especially last game — (Washington’s) lines, our lines — there wasn’t a whole lot going on.”