Toronto Maple Leafs: Mitch Marner’s Legendary Game That Doesn’t Count

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost game seven to the Tampa Bay Lightning, and thus came to an end the best season in the history of the club.

The Toronto Maple Leafs finished with 54 wins, and 115 points, in the best year the team has had, dating back to 1927.

In the aftermath of the loss to Tampa, I’ve seen a lot of people lament that Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner just aren’t “playoff performers” but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Of course the final results colour everything we talk about going forward, so the fact that Marner and Matthews were unable to elevate the Leafs to victory means they aren’t playoff performers, and I don’t expect anyone to read this and change their mind.

But it might give a few people the satisfaction of knowing better.

Because Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner had incredible games vs Tampa in Game Seven and just because Andre Vasilevskiy had a better game doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Let’s take a look at the evidence:

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Tampa Bay Game Seven Stats

Overall, Matthews had four shots, Marner had zero, and they each had an assist.

Not the legendary performance people were hoping for with the season on the line.

Or was it?

In Game 7, Marner, Matthews posted incredible numbers:

With Marner on the ice, for 16 minutes,  the Leafs had 22 shot-attempts vs Tampa’s 3.  That’s an 88% puck-possession rating.  (All stats naturalstattrick.com).

With Matthews it was 23-8 for 74%, which is still incredible.

Losing a deciding game where one of your best players posts a nearly 90% CF is improbable.

The Leafs outshot Tampa 8-1 when Marner was on the ice,  which is incredibly dominant, but it also means their defense blocked a ton of shots.

Since the Leafs ultimately only got one goal at 5v5 (and zero on their 3 PPs) people tend to think Tampa must just have had a great night defensively,  but they were brutal.  In the NHL, if the other team constantly has the puck vs a passive defense, it’s only a matter of time before the team with the puck breaks through.

It is a very, very bad strategy to play as passively as the stats suggest Tampa did.  Of course, that wasn’t actually their strategy, they just had no answer for Marner/Matthews/Bunting other than hang on tight and hope to get through it.   The Leafs just ran out of time.

With Marner on the ice in game 7, the Toronto Maple Leafs had 14 scoring chances to Tampa’s 1.  The Final Score during these minutes? 1 to 1.

That’s right.

Marner received a zero percent save percentage while on the ice in game seven.

The Leafs outscored Tampa across the entire series, they had the expected goals advantage in four games, and they actually did win Game Six even though Tampa was credited with the win, due to referee incompetence.

But the biggest kick in the Leafs’ groin was that Jack Campbell ruined Mitch Marner’s immaculate game by letting in a goal on the only shot Tampa got with Marner on the ice.

To have the reputation as a playoff loser, to go 18 games without a goal (which is just incredibly unlucky even if he had played badly in every single game) and then to have what amounts to playing the equivalent one of the best games ever, but it not counting, just sucks.

For a millionaire who plays a game for a living, the dude has the worst luck!  To be honest, however, this is the most typical “Leafs” thing that could happen – one of the best players in franchise history has one of the best games it’s possible to have, only to have the one shot that his team allowed with him on the ice to go into the net.