The Toronto Maple Leafs will receive a boost to their forward group when they take on the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night. Mitch Marner, sidelined with a lower body injury since March 7th, will make his return following a 12 game absence the team announced.
“I just want to get back, get back in the rhythm of things and try to contribute to help our team win games,” Marner said Friday. “Just getting up to game speed (is the biggest challenge) regardless of how many skates or workouts you do, it’s always tough to get back into game speed, especially the game speed at the level we are at right now. Just try to get acquainted with it as quickly as possible and just make sure the first couple shifts you try to keep them short and quick.”
With 76 points (25G, 51A) across 62 contests in 2023-24, Marner will be a welcomed addition to the team’s top six forward group. That being said, when he makes his return, he could find himself with some new line mates as the club prepares for the playoffs.
Coach Sheldon Keefe had the line of Auston Matthews, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Max Domi stick together at the team’s pre-game skate, instead choosing to slide Marner down the lineup to John Tavares and Bobby McMann’s line. That move also means that right winger William Nylander will need to acquaint himself to Pontus Holmberg and Matthew Knies as the Leafs’ bench boss is hoping to create some different looks down the stretch.
The 26 year old’s impending return hasn’t been all sunshine and roses in Toronto however. Speaking at the team’s Friday media availability, Marner had some testy exchanges with reports. Especially when the topic of goaltender Ilya Samsonov came up.
“Just like I spoke on before, I mean, I know I’ve said a lot of times, you guys are not kind to some people sometimes. And stuff gets said about a lot of people during tough stretches or tough moments,” Marner said. “And obviously that doesn’t define one person. And what Ilya has done from coming back from the start of the season and just really taking us back into a great position, being the backbone of this team. It’s been phenomenal and amazing to see.”
This led to a David Alter article for the Hockey News suggesting that Marner needs to focus on his on ice performance and less about what the media says.
With Marner preparing to make his return, and the Leafs having already clinched a postseason berth, the final handful of games will allow the Markham, ON native to get his feet back under him before the playoffs begin. And perhaps Marner and his Toronto teammates can use their clear displeasure with how the team has been covered this season as a rallying cry of sorts as they hope to exercise some postseason demons this spring.
Photo: David. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.