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Mitch Marner is playing a different game right now
- Story by
- Mitch Marner is playing a different game right now
Travis Dermott for the season and Igor Ozhiganov for his career, two Toronto Maple Leafs defensemen notched their first goals Monday at Scotiabank Arena — and both came in fitting fashion.
Fitting not because the goals were scored against a former team, or teammate, or anything like that. And while last season Dermott scored his first NHL goal on the same night that another Leafs defender, Justin Holl , scored his last season, that's not the connection we're getting at here, either.
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Instead, it's that Dermott and Ozhiganov were each put in that peculiar position — that is, with a rare chance to score — by the NHL's primary assist king, Mitch Marner.
Two more direct set-ups for Marner makes 24 for the season. That's six more than the next highest producer of primary assists, Avs wiz Mikko Rantanen , and nine more than the NHL's best player, Connor McDavid .
Look alive next game, Freddy Gauthier and Nikita Zaitsev .
You may be next.
Marner is leading the NHL in primary points this season. (Getty)
Primary assists are by no means a perfect measure of a hockey player's play-making ability, but it sure does reflect well on Marner — a player doing incredible things in his third season.
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With 24 first assists in 25 games played, Marner is essentially creating a goal for a teammate every contest. Factor in the six he's scored himself, and the soon-to-be restricted free agent now sits ahead of Brayden Point and McDavid by two for the NHL lead in primary points.
More impressive than rate and the company he keeps is the manner in which Marner is dropping these dimes.
A masterful bit of skating, edge work, vision and creativity, Marner's assist on Ozhiganov's maiden goal was like a glimpse into hockey heaven.
And I don't think I'm being overly dramatic.
With his uncanny ability to find John Tavares now spreading to all corners of the lineup, Marner has the full attention of his goal-hungry teammates.
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"If you get open, he's going to find you — and get the puck to you right on the tape and flat," said Dermott, who was able to waltz into a high-danger area off a Marner feed to bury for the first time this year.
"He's a guy you want to be out there with. You know if you get open in a good spot he's going to find you."
It's incredible, now, looking back on this time last season, and as Marner suffered through a first-half scoring funk.
At times, his confidence was shaken.
This year it's swelling by the shift.
"I know now that when stuff isn't going the way it should be in the first or second, I'm not getting frustrated, just staying calm, just relaxing out there," Marner said after his three-point performance.
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"When I get (the puck) I'm just trying to make the right play, the simple play. If I see something else, I try to make that play."
Neither pressing nor keeping things too simple, Marner's game has completely opened up.
Full of creativity and flair, he's taking over games on a count of being better than everyone else.
"What's amazing is most of us have no time and space whatsoever," Leafs coach Mike Babcock said after the game. "We're banging it here and banging it there and chasing it. Then the really good guys seem to have all the time in the world. That's why they're just gliding all over the rink and it's seems effortless and it seems like fun and they have the puck all the time and you can't figure out why.
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"They're just better than everybody else."
On another level now, but what's to come for Marner? Take it from the teammate that has now seen 1,600 games worth of NHL talent.
"He's only going to get better, I think," Patrick Marleau said.
"That's pretty scary."
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