Mitch Marner's 3-point night igniting discussion

With a dominant 5-1 victory on Friday, the Vegas Golden Knights are moving on to the 2nd round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in Mitch Marner's first run with the organization. At surface level, it's easy to look at Marner's 3-point effort and give him his flowers, but there is a conversation that nobody seems ready to have just yet. The need for that conversation may become apparent in short order.

For Marner, a long history of under delivering in Toronto had opened him up to an overwhelming amount of criticism. Most of that criticism was fair and warranted under the circumstances. Marner had produced just 1 goal across 26 appearances in a Game 5, 6 or 7 in his time with the Maple Leafs. However, now that he has performed once in an elimination scenario, are we really supposed to pretend like history is irrelevant, or that it won't repeat itself?

For someone paid a premium and expected to show up and perform like a star night in and night out, Marner was simply was not good enough in Toronto. He was also one of the biggest problems when it came to accountability in the Maple Leafs' locker room, and his many frustrating interviews left fans puzzled and conflicted and media members completely alienated.

The narrative is shifting around Mitch Marner

Marner being lauded for his efforts in Game 6 against the Utah Mammoth in an elimination game has the narrative shifting. The Markham, Ontario native going from being run out of town by an angry, pitchfork-wielding mob in Toronto for consistently under delivering when it mattered to being celebrated for his playoff heroics in Utah, propelling his Vegas Golden Knights to the second round is frustrating for Leafs Nation, because we know the sad reality. He hasn't shown the ability to sustain this.

I'm all for celebrating someone's victories, but the way Marner is being talked about now, despite the performance history of the player, is a classic case of recency bias. The Leafs are being scorned for fumbling an elite forward, and it's as though people have forgotten that Marner could not hack it as a top-line asset in Toronto when the games got tough in April and May, and instead of sticking around and working on his game and his attitude to be a part of the solution for the Maple Leafs, he tucked his tail between his legs and ran off to Vegas to play a secondary role with a team that had been a true contender without him.

I don't know how much Marner's individual performance in relation to that of his teammates really deserves the extra attention. Carter Hart, for example, was another standout performer, posting a .957 SV% in the win. Shea Theodore was a major minute-muncher, leading the team in ice time, playing 24:30, registering the primary assist on Marner's PP goal in the 3rd, and also blocked 4 shots. Where are Theodore's flowers? For context, Marner, (2G, 1A) saw just 17:19 TOI in the win.

Mitch Marner has a lot left to prove before fans in Toronto will ever give him his due

The wounds are deep in Toronto, and for good reason. Marner had nine chances to prove to Maple Leafs fans that he had what it took to get the job done, and he failed to rise to the occasion with elimination on the line and help lead his team on a deep run in that time. He couldn't deliver when the team really needed him to. This one isolated high-octane performance doesn't negate anything that happened before it. That's just the reality here in Toronto.

For Marner and the Golden Knights, their next challenge is set to begin on Tuesday, May 5th when they host the Anaheim Ducks in Game 1 of their second round series. The Ducks will be riding high after ousting Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, one of the favourites to emerge as true Cup contenders in the West before the playoffs began.

The Ducks represent a unique challenge for Marner the Golden Knights with a lot of young, hungry talent and veteran leadership with playoff experience. If Marner wants to show that he has indeed reinvented himself, he'll have to show that he can stifle a surging Ducks team who are eager to prove that they belong in the position that they're in.

Source: Mitchell Marner @ Elite Prospects