It must have been a bittersweet moment for many hockey fans in Toronto. Watching Mitch Marner score a stunning overtime winner for Team Canada over Czechia in the Olympic Hockey quarterfinals had many Maple Leafs fans wondering why he wasn’t this clutch for the Blue & White over all those years in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
But Marner’s Team Canada teammates had the winger’s back after the thrilling OT win.
It started with his Vegas Golden Knights teammate Mark Stone, who has been playing on a line with Marner at the Olympics. Stone was asked about the idea of Marner not being ‘clutch’:
As a teammate, I haven’t experienced that. 4 Nations, he gets a huge overtime goal for us, makes an incredible play for the winner. Then tonight, when we need him the most, he makes the play. So… I think it’s a Toronto thing.
A ‘Toronto thing’ indeed.
Tampa Bay Lightning star and Canadian teammate Brandon Hagel also gave Mitch his props and shot down the ‘not clutch’ narrative.
“I thought he wasn’t a big game player? He just showed the world,” Hagel said.
The most viral post about all this came from former NHL All-Star goalie Roberto Luongo, whose legendary status as a goaltender is only surpassed by his legendary Twitter account. Moments after Marner’s memorable game-winner, he came up with this beauty:
Indeed, Marner was born to wear the maple leaf on his chest. At this point, however, that would be a red one, not a Blue & White one.
To be frank, this isn’t the first big-game goal that Marner has been an architect of for Canada over the past 12 months, either. He also had a huge overtime winner against Sweden in the 4 Nations last year, and then a couple of days later made the pass to Connor McDavid for the OT winner in that tournament.
What are Marner’s playoff stats with Maple Leafs?
In fairness, to present both sides of the argument, however, we must point out Marner’s playoff record vs. 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 a 1.13 points-per-game average. In the playoffs? Across 70 games over nine years with the Leafs, Marner had 13 goals and 63 points. That’s a 0.9 points-per-game mark. And breaking it down further into just Games 5, 6, and 7 of playoff series, as many critics are inclined to do, Marner’s points-per-game plummets to just 0.42, with 11 points in 26 such games.
Sure, you can argue over whether a critical goal in Games 1 through 4 in a playoff series is a big as one in Games 5 through 7, but the numbers are startling, nevertheless.
The narrative has been there for a long time. But perhaps Marner’s clutch gene is finally emerging with the help of these huge international contests. Let’s see if it transfers to the NHL now.
When the Golden Knights take to the ice for the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, we may get to finally see if it really was a ‘Toronto thing’ that was holding Mitch back.
