Analyst Pumps the Brakes on Marner’s Playoff Surge Post-Maple Leafs

The fear the Maple Leafs and their fans always had when it came to moving on from Mitch Marner has already come true in his first season out of Toronto.

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It’s mid-May, and while the Maple Leafs’ season has long been over, Marner is currently lighting it up as the league leader in playoff point scoring for a Vegas Golden Knights team that’s now just two wins away from the Western Conference Finals.

While Marner has been incredible and has proven a lot of doubters wrong so far this postseason, TSN analyst Bryan Hayes isn’t quite ready to forget about the much larger sample size of not-so-positive playoff performances from his past in Toronto.

Hayes said:

“He is writing a new chapter, it doesn’t erase the ones he’s already written. He wrote nine chapters here in Toronto, played here for nine years. Never had a hat trick. Right, I don’t recall the last time he had three points in a game—I’m sure it’s happened before in the playoffs. It doesn’t erase it because of what he’s doing in Vegas. Credit to him, he’s playing exceptionally well. It’s 2-2 in the second round, let’s also clarify that. Right, it was 2-2 against Florida this time last year. Lot of games left. They’ve played Utah and Anaheim. Not exactly Boston in their prime, Florida in their prime, Tampa in their prime. Right, it hasn’t been nasty, I haven’t seen anyone looking at him saying I’m gonna go punch him in the head to see how he reacts. He had to deal with that more when he was in the Atlantic,”

The 29-year-old Marner has racked up 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in just 10 games played so far this postseason after recording 80 points (24 goals, 56 assists) in 81 regular-season games.

Nobody can take away from how well Marner has played in these playoffs, though, as Hayes noted, what’s to come will be the ultimate test.

Time and space is going to be minimal in what is now a best-of-three against Anaheim, with the potential to eventually face a juggernaut like Colorado in Round 3.

Given what we’ve seen so far, there’s no reason to believe Marner can’t continue to produce. That being said, it might not come as easily as it has in recent weeks.

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