Young Leafs by Gare Joyce

Author:Gare Joyce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada

CHAPTER NINE

THOUGH THE LEAFS HAD SURGED in Midseason, even when playing their best hockey, they consistently struggled with back-to-back games, or at least the second game in consecutive nights. It would be expected of most NHL teams, especially of one with so many young players, those who are learning about the NHL grind and are not yet physically up to the challenge. By mid-February, the numbers made a powerful case: an impressive 9-2-2 in the first of such two-game series, they were only 4-8-1 in the back half.

So, it wasn’t surprising that the Leafs beat the Islanders at the ACC on February 14 and lost to Columbus the next night. But the divide between the games was striking. At home, the Leafs rolled over the Islanders 7–1, a desperately needed win over another team in the chase for a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Blue Jackets figured to be a stiffer challenge wherever they fell in a schedule—for a long stretch of the midseason, they were the NHL’s hottest club, and they played with a physical edge that caused problems for Toronto’s skill up front. It didn’t seem like the outcome was ever in doubt: a bad match-up plus bad timing equaled a 5–2 loss in Columbus, a loss that felt more one-sided than the score suggested. A split wasn’t the worst news, however. A far greater concern was a shoulder injury that knocked Mitch Marner out of the game.

It wasn’t the biggest hit in the NHL that night. Columbus centre Boone Jenner wouldn’t be accused of running Marner, who was likely giving away forty pounds in the match-up. It seemed like almost an incidental collision in the neutral zone, but when players are moving even at cruising speed, incidental collisions have outsized consequences. With the Leafs down 4–0 late in the second period, Jenner brushed Marner’s left shoulder, which knocked Marner flying into the boards without time to brace himself. It could have had a far worse result—he was turned around just enough to avoid going into the wall headfirst. Still, it looked ugly.

Marner managed to get up and skate over to the bench. He winced and ducked his head. He went down the hallway to the Leafs’ dressing room to get examined and, at two later junctures, took shifts in the game. On the latter, early in the third period, after almost slipping the puck past goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, Marner tried to duck under towering defenceman Seth Jones, and just the slightest, unintended contact made Marner’s knees buckle. He was done for the game. The fear was that Marner, the Leafs’ leading scorer with 48 points in fifty-six games at that point, might have suffered a fractured collarbone or a shoulder dislocation. It wound up being a sprain, one that would keep him out of the line-up for a couple of weeks. More of a scare than a knockout blow to their hopes of making the playoffs.

While Marner and his injury were the focus of attention in Columbus, a couple of turns in the game went largely unnoticed.

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