The Toronto Maple Leafs dominated the Senators last night.
After three straight games where the Toronto Maple Leafs were below 40% of the total shot-attempts (i.e three straight games where they were absolutely destroyed) they rebounded with a great game last night.
More specifically, Mitch Marner had a great game. Five points. 87% CF.
That is not a typo. At 5v5, Mitch Marner controlled 87% of the game last night. 87%.
Leafs Game Score from tonight: Mitch Marner with the highest Game Score of the season for the Leafs, and probably the league for that matter pic.twitter.com/cFOTMiMomy
— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) February 11, 2018
Mitch Marner didn’t just have the best game of the year for the Leafs, he had the best game of the year for anyone in the NHL this season. In 15 minutes of 5v5 ice-time, Marner was on the ice for 27 shot-attempts for, and four against. Of his five points, three of them came at even-strength, meaning that he was on the ice for one less goal than the Senators got shots.
This is an absolutely insane game from Marner
New Normal?
Marner has been teasing his ascension to Matthews-Level Super-Star since at least that December afternoon game against the Hurricanes.
Mitch Marner has shown on multiple occasions now that he has the talent to be one of the best players in the NHL. When this happens, the Leafs go from “well, maybe if you squint they are contenders” to verified best-team in the NHL. It’s one thing to have Auston Matthews, but if you have a second guy on that level you’re unbeatable. Think Crosby-Malkin levels of dominance.
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Sure, Matthews is never going to be better than Sidney Crosby, but both Matthews and Marner could (potentially) end up superior to Malkin, giving the Leafs something approaching the same aggregate total.
I’ll say right now that Matthews/Marner > Kucherov/Stamkos.
Marner: Amazing!
87% Possession? Forget the five points (which are awesome) but that level of dominance is basically unheard of.
Marner now has 12 goals and 42 points in 57 games and a 53% possession rating. Those are VERY good numbers. But Marner doesn’t have close to the amount of points that he should, because he has a shooting percentage under 8%. This low shooting percentage had him in a crazy slump earlier in the season that had people erroneously saying ‘sophomore slump,’ when the reality was that he was playing fantastic but getting unlucky.
Marner had nine points in four games starting with the aforementioned Carolina game, but then he went cold for the last two games of December all the way through most of January where he put up just three points in 11 games. Luck or not, once those streaks disappear, the Leafs are cup favorites. A 1-2 combo of Matthews and Marner (with JVR on third line!!) is essentially undefendable. And I haven’t even mentioned William Nylander who is just as good.
Currently Marner has at least a single point in seven of his last ten. Could this be the ascension we’ve been waiting for?
Next: Most Likely to Be Traded
When Marner is a guaranteed one point per game, the Leafs will be unstoppable. That might be happening now, it’s hard to tell. The only thing we do know that with the exception of a certain Darryl Sittler game, last night Marner had maybe the best game in Toronto Maple Leafs history.