This must have been a bittersweet moment for many hockey fans in Toronto. Watching Mitch Marner score the spectacular overtime winner for Team Canada over Czechia in the Olympic hockey quarter-finals had many Maple Leafs fans wondering why he hadn’t been so clutch for the Blue and White in the Stanley Cup playoffs all these years.
But Marner’s Team Canada teammates supported the winger after the thrilling OT win.
It started with his Vegas Golden Knights teammate Mark Stone, who is playing with Marner in the Olympics. Stone was asked about Marner’s thoughts on not being ‘clutch’:
As a teammate, I haven’t had that experience. 4 Nations, he gets a big overtime goal for us, makes an incredible play for the winner. Then tonight, when we need him most, he makes a play. So… I guess it’s a Toronto thing.
Truly a ‘Toronto thing’.
Tampa Bay Lightning star and Canadian teammate Brandon Hagel also gave his support to Mitch and dismissed the ‘not clutch’ narrative.
Hagel said, “I thought he wasn’t a big game player? He just showed the world.”
The most viral post about all this comes from former NHL All-Star goaltender Roberto Luongo, whose legendary status as a goaltender is only surpassed by his famous Twitter account. Moments after Marner’s memorable game-winner, he came up with this beauty:
In fact, Marner was born to wear the maple leaf on his chest. However, at this point, it will be the red one, not the blue and white one.
To be fair, this isn’t the first big-game goal Marner has scored for Canada in the last 12 months. He also scored a big overtime winner against Sweden in the 4 Nations last year, and then made a pass to Connor McDavid for the OT winner in that tournament a few days later.
What are Marner’s playoff stats with the Maple Leafs?
However, in fairness, to present both sides of the argument, we should point out Marner’s playoff record versus his regular season mark while a member of the Maple Leafs.
In 657 regular season games with Toronto, Marner had 221 goals and 741 points in 657 games. That’s an average of 1.13 points per game. In the playoffs? In 70 games over nine years with the Leafs, Marner had 13 goals and 63 points. That’s 0.9 points per game. And breaking it down to just Games 5, 6, and 7 of the playoff series, as many critics believe, Marner’s points-per-game drops to just 0.42 with 11 points in 26 such games.
Sure, you can debate whether a key goal in Games 1 to 4 is as big a deal as a key goal in Games 5 to 7 in a playoff series, but the numbers are shocking nonetheless.
The story has been going on for a long time. But perhaps Marner’s clutch genes are finally emerging with the help of these huge international competitions. Let’s see if this transfers to the NHL now.
When the Golden Knights take to the ice for the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, we’ll finally be able to see if it was really a ‘Toronto thing’ that was holding Mitch back.
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