All-star or no, Marner shines bright
Mitch Marner is not an NHL all-star, which frankly says more about being an NHL all-star than it does Mitch Marner. Honestly, it was three years ago that Leo Komarov, bless his taciturn oddball heart, was Toronto’s representative in the big mid-season thing they do every year for some reason. Not every all-star is created equal.
John Scott was the MVP in that Komarov year, which was the last time the weekend really lived up to its billing. So naturally, the NHL banned another John Scott voting controversy, so now it’s just the best players who get in. Well, most of them. Some of them, at the very least.
“Yeah, I think the way it’s set up, a lot of really good players get left off the list,” said Toronto’s Auston Matthews, after a 4-3 loss to visiting Minnesota Thursday. “I mean my opinion, missing (14 games) as I did, and seeing those three guys, the way they played, (John Tavares), Mitch and (Morgan Rielly), I think I’d give up my spot for them any day of the week, and they’ve had unbelievable seasons. But that’s just the way it is sometimes.”
Tavares is in, and Rielly can get voted in, and Matthews was voted in as one of the captains, because Matthews is considered the biggest star on this Leafs team, which he is. But the gap isn’t so wide. Marner scored the first two goals of the game Thursday — one seven seconds after the faceoff on a scrambled controlled drive and a backhand, and the second on a give-and-go with Tavares, with whom he has chemistry you can’t teach.
The Leafs then sagged, and eventually lost. They’re still on pace for about the second-best record in hockey, so you can’t get too excited about it.
In theory, you can’t get too excited about the NHL all-star game, either. Some players skip it — if you count actual games he is Sidney Crosby, twotime all-star — and though it’s gotten more fun, it’s still … well, as St. Louis sniper Vladimir Tarasenko said after the game in 2017, “I’m sorry. I really can’t talk about this game seriously.”
But the youthful Marner entered the so-called Next Generation afternoon game — a well-executed gimmick which featured kid players skating in the warm-ups, kid officials on the ice, kid announcers and kid sideline reporters, a kid in a garish red tartan suit accompanying Don Cherry to give a camouflage jersey to a soldier, and so forth — sixth in the NHL in points, fourth in assists, eighth in points per game, and seventh in points per 60 minutes played.
Then Marner scored twice, hit a post late in the second period, pulled a double spin-orama to make a defenceman fall down, drew a third-period tripping call, and was generally his usual delightful self. He leads the Leafs with 55 points, and still leads the NHL in primary assists. But he’s not an all-star.
“Focus on here, and just focus on trying to help this team win,” said Marner. “Nothing you can do about it.” Asked if he would actually want to go — Alexander Ovechkin has already announced he will eat the one-game suspension that comes with skipping the game — Marner seemed a little more like the hockey-loving kid he still resembles, even at 21. But overall, he seemed a little bummed.
“Oh yeah, I think it’s always a cool event,” said Marner. “Something as a kid growing up, it was always something that would be cool to be at. But stuff happens and that’s not a big deal. Yesterday when the news came out, didn’t really think about it much. There’s bigger things in the world to think about than that.”
Well sure, but once you go down that road sports itself starts to feel pretty fizzy and insubstantial. Look, Marner’s all-star game problem is the same as Toronto’s salary-cap problem: they have too many good young players. Marner is on pace for 113 points. Tavares is on pace for 53 goals and 94 points, and Matthews is still on pace for 50 goals and 94 points despite missing those 14 games, and Rielly is on pace for 90 points, slightly above his career high of 52. And while we’re at it, when the Leafs are down to their third goalie you can see why Frederik Andersen might be the most valuable Leaf of all.
But the NHL wants to include all its markets, even the threecard monte shops with rosters full of guys you wouldn’t recognize in a lineup. Look, everything Marner and Matthews do this season has to be filtered through the idea that there is only so much money and primacy to go around. And Marner’s people seem to think he’s worth as much as Matthews or anybody, and it’s an argument that’s easier and easier to make. If he plays on almost any other team except Tampa, Marner probably makes it. But that’s life in Toronto right now.
Marner shouldn’t take it personally, but if he’s bummed, well … if you view the snub in the light of a kid who has been overshadowed all the way along because of his size, at every step, you can see how this could be taken personally. Still, Mitch Marner isn’t an NHL all-star, but he’s a star, and the thing to remember is what matters more.