On Sunday night, Mitch Marner delivered a standout performance in a game where his Vegas Golden Knights overcame an early three-goal deficit to take a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference Final. Vegas needed their stars to shine, and Marner shone particularly bright, recording the primary assist on both of the Golden Knights’ first two goals to kickstart the comeback.
But it wasn’t Marner’s play that set the hockey world ablaze. Instead, something he said after the game stole the spotlight.
“We have an older group that just stays patient and stays calm,” Marner said to the scrum of thirty-some media members. “We don’t turn on each other, and we don’t get mad at each other.”
In a sport that thrives on drama and narratives, Marner’s comment spread like wildfire. Right on cue, the blue-clad fans up North came out of the woodwork, and they were none too pleased by Marner’s comments. In their defense, Toronto is the center of the hockey world, and everyone likes to ask, “How does this affect the Leafs?”
But if you take a moment to read everything that was said, it’s evident that a small snippet of Marner’s response was taken wildly out of context.
The question prompting Marner’s comment, asked by Jesse Granger of The Athletic, was perfectly innocent.
“[The Golden Knights] trailed a lot more than you’d like during the regular season. Does spending time on the wrong side of the score make you more comfortable in these situations and pay dividends in a game like this?”
Marner’s full answer was just as innocuous.
“Maybe, in a way. We have an older group as well, that just stays patient and stays calm. We don’t turn on each other, we don’t get mad at each other. We know everyone’s trying to do their best out there every single shift. That was the talk throughout [the first] intermission, just keep doing what we’re doing. We’re doing the right things, we’re getting scoring chances and looks. If we keep doing that, we’ll get rewarded eventually. We did that going into the second, and throughout the second, and we got rewarded for it.”
Sorry, Toronto. There’s nothing here— no hidden agenda, no deeper meaning, and certainly no shade thrown.
Marner wasn’t taking a potshot at his former team; he was simply highlighting the mindset his current one needed to erase a 3-0 deficit against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche and close out the game in regulation.
Take off the blue-colored glasses for a moment. Marner hasn’t gone out of his way to dredge up the past before, so why start now? Why now, when his team is just one win away from advancing to the Stanley Cup Final? Why now, when he is the front-runner and odds-on favorite to win the Conn Smythe?
Maybe, if the Golden Knights do go on to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup, and Marner does indeed win the Conn Smythe, maybe then he’ll throw gas on the fire. Maybe then he’ll say something to truly warrant the amount of pearl-clutching that this innocent comment prompted.
Maybe. But probably not.