Mitch Marner just sent the No.1 team in the league home, and his postgame answer wasn't about Vegas.
It was about Toronto. About the dark moments. About the parents and wife who were beside him through the hardest part of his career.
The 29-year-old winger spoke directly to that hidden weight on Tuesday night after the Golden Knights eliminated the Colorado Avalanche in Game 4.
"Obviously my parents, there have been some dark moments in my hockey career really, some tough moments that my parents have been beside me, my wife's been beside me," Marner said.
He didn't name Toronto. He didn't need to. Every hockey fan in North America knew exactly what he was talking about.
-
This is the same player who absorbed years of fanbase pressure in Toronto. The same player who took on the blame for first-round exits that involved an entire roster. The same player Vegas signed in the off-season at $12 million per year.
Stanley Cup Final waiting on Carolina or Montreal next
Marner has been spectacular this postseason. 19 points across 14 playoff games. 12 assists. 4 shorthanded helpers. A plus-13 rating against the deepest competition in the league.
The dark times are behind him. The Stanley Cup Final is in front of him. Vegas now waits on whoever survives the Eastern Conference Final between Carolina and Montreal.
That's not a player playing scared. That's a player playing free for maybe the first time in his NHL life.
Honestly, the Vegas signing looks like one of the best free-agent moves of last summer. Marner needed an environment where the spotlight wasn't a magnifying glass. The Knights gave him one.
John Tortorella's bench has unlocked a different version of the winger. GM Kelly McCrimmon's structure surrounds him with veterans who've already won. The room isn't asking him to be the savior.
Vegas finished the regular season at 39-26-17 with 95 points. Hot down the stretch. Now they're four wins from a Stanley Cup after dispatching a 121-point Avalanche team.
-
The Toronto narrative will keep writing itself this summer. The first-overall pick is the consolation. Marner's playoff run is the contrast.
Are Leafs fans watching this and second-guessing how they treated him? Some are. Some aren't. The split runs through every Toronto sports radio call-in.
Marner gets to keep playing hockey. Carolina or Montreal will arrive next. The dark moments are behind him. The light, finally, is right in front.
Did the Toronto Maple Leafs lose by letting Mitch Marner walk to Vegas?
Also read on Markerzone.com:
The most disgusting play in hockey history just happened: Jordan Tourigny stomps on Christian Humphreys
