Mitch Marner has come up big for the Vegas Golden Knights in these Stanley Cup playoffs, recording a hat trick in Game 3 against the Anaheim Ducks. As he leads the post-season in points, why is Marner suddenly a playoff performer when he wasn't as such with the Toronto Maple Leafs?
When he left the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Vegas Golden Knights last summer, star right winger Mitch Marner put himself in a position to get out of the Toronto spotlight and have a better chance to win a Stanley Cup.
Now, after a regular season in which he was a relatively complete disappearing act on the media front, Marner just gave the Golden Knights a crucial leg up in the post-season with a hat trick and a four-point performance on Friday in Vegas’ 6-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
With that Game 3 victory, Vegas has a 2-1 lead in their second-round series against the Ducks, and Marner is now only 10 wins away from winning his first Cup.
But suddenly, after some called him the problem in Toronto – at least, in terms of his playoff performance – Marner is leading the NHL in playoff points, with 13 points in nine games. So why is Marner a big-time playoff performer when he wasn’t for so many years in Toronto?
Let’s clear up one thing about Marner’s Maple Leafs career. In 70 career playoff games with Toronto, Marner posted 50 assists and 63 points. So he isn’t a player who was held off the scoresheet completely as a Maple Leaf. But you can say Marner has elevated his game in Vegas, and at 29 years old, he’s in his prime.
That said, there are other things working in Marner’s favor right now.
Firstly, he's on a Golden Knights team that doesn't need him to do all of the heavy lifting the way the Maple Leafs did, so there's considerably less pressure there for him to deal with in Vegas.
He can do his part and not have to worry about his teammates doing their part. Vegas has proven Cup-winning veterans, and they’re much more accomplished than his former Leafs teammates.
Some might suggest Marner’s playoff opponents this year are notably weaker than the ones the Leafs faced in the highly competitive Atlantic Division, and there is some truth to that. But the biggest factor of all could be the fact that the Golden Knights’ defense is far and away better than the Maple Leafs’ defense was.
Indeed, this year, Vegas’ defense has allowed an average of 2.67 goals against. Compare that to Toronto’s 3.23 goals-against average last year, and you see why allowing more than a half-goal less reflects very well on the Golden Knights’ ability to clamp down and hold opponents to very little in the offense department.
So, with all those factors working in his favor, Marner can’t help but look like he made the right move for himself by coming to Vegas. He may not have had the regular season he’d hoped to have, but Marner is meeting lofty post-season expectations with the Golden Knights. And while there’s a lot of playoff hockey still to play, Marner is showing that leaving Toronto led to his best opportunity to win a Cup.
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