‘He just showed the world’: Teammates react to Mitch Marner’s OT heroics

Toronto Maple Leafs fans can’t believe what they just saw. In the midst of a nerve-racking sudden-death 3-on-3 overtime against Czechia in Wednesday’s men’s hockey Olympic quarterfinal game, Canada‘s Mitch Marner received a drop pass near his own blue line and looked to penetrate into the offensive zone. As he entered the zone, Czechia’s defenders surrounded him, but never closed on him, wary of his ability dish it off to a teammate. Marner kept going, maneuvering around reaching Czech sticks to ultimately shelf a backhand past goaltender Lukas Dostal for a beautiful OT winner, sending Canada to semifinals.

During his time with the Leafs in the NHL, Marner had developed the reputation as a great regular season player that comes up small in the biggest moments. It wasn’t a completely unfair assessment, as Toronto won only two series’ over nine straight playoff appearances with Marner. In six Game 7s with the Leafs, Marner had no goals and just two assists. According to his Canadian teammates, however, Marner’s heroics on Wednesday proved that narrative wrong.

“I thought he wasn’t a big-game player? He just showed the world,” said forward Brandon Hagel after the game.

In his short experience playing for Team Canada in best-on-best international tournaments, Marner has been the epitome of clutch. At last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, he scored the OT winner against Sweden in the opener, and also had the primary assist on Connor McDavid’s OT winner against the United States in the final.

Forward Mark Stone, who is also Marner’s current NHL teammate with the Vegas Golden Knights, echoed Hagel’s sentiments and rejected the notion that Marner isn’t clutch.

“As a teammate, I haven’t experienced that,” Stone said. “4 Nations, he gets a huge overtime goal for us, makes an incredible play for the winner. Then tonight, when we need him the most, he makes the play. So… I think it’s a Toronto thing.”