The Toronto Maple Leafs Have 1 Thing Left to Accomplish in Reg. Season

TAMPA, FL - DECEMBER 3: Mitchell Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates his goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the third period of the game at the Amalie Arena on December 3, 2022 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images)
TAMPA, FL - DECEMBER 3: Mitchell Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates his goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the third period of the game at the Amalie Arena on December 3, 2022 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images)

The Toronto Maple Leafs will finish off the 2022-23 NHL Regular season tonight against the New York Rangers.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have known who their playoff opponent was going to be since October 4th (that’s an exaggeration, but you get my drift) and certainly do not care about the results of this game.

While the game is meaningless in the standings for both the Leafs and the New York Rangers, there is one person who probably considers this game very important:

Mitch Marner.

That is because Mitch Marner has 99 points, and would very much like to achieve his first ever 100 point season.  At least, I assume that he wants to. I don’t actually know how much it matters to him, but I would guess probably quite a bit.

Even though I currently am tied for the lowest amount of points in NHL history (with zero) it would mean a great deal to me to score 100, and I bet Marner feels the same way.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Mitch Marner

Marner should already have 100 points, because he assisted on Auston Matthews goal against Montreal last week and was not credited with the assist because the puck was touched by a Montreal player.

The announces discussed it for 25 minutes, and it seemed like a slam-dunk to get changed, but apparently not.

Though Montreal never had possession of the puck, and though Marner was instrumental in the goal, and though the NHL always awards similarly high-cheese assists, they did not budge on this one.

They should have, but then again, if they did there wouldn’t be any reason to watch tonight’s game.

In 2018-19 Marner had 94 points in 82 games, but in October and November of that year, he went through a stretch where he had points in only 2 of 12 games.   Should have been an easy 100.

In 2019-20 he scored at a 93 point pace, playing only 59 games.  I like to think he’d easily have picked his pace up over the game he missed, but who knows?  Probably only Miss Cleo.

In 2020-21 he scored at a 100 point pace exactly, playing only 55 games.  I am not a betting man, but if I was, and I could somehow bet retroactively on things that could hypothetically have happened, I’d place my money on Marner getting to 100 in 2021.

In 2021-22 he had 97 points in 72 games.  He easily could have scored 3 points in the ten games he missed.  I mean they say you shouldn’t assume, but I think in this case it’s warranted.

In 2022 he has 99 points and has played in all but two games, games in which he was healthy scratched to rest up for the playoffs.

With a little luck, the Marn-Man could be going for his 5th consecutive 100 points season, an achievement on par with Can’s Tago Mago.  (stats naturalstattrick.com).

There is a good chance he does it tonight, assuming he suits up.