OTTAWA—It was Mitch Marner who bore the brunt of the criticism for the Maple Leafs’ playoff demise against the Boston Bruins last spring, failing to check David Pastrnák on his way to scoring the Game 7 winner.
Now it’s Marner who has elevated his play and led the Leafs to a three-games-to-none lead over the Ottawa Senators, and a chance to sweep their provincial rivals on Saturday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
The difference: The Leafs have the 4 Nations Face-Off version of Marner, who leads the team in scoring with a goal and five assists through three games.
pc28sits one game from the Original Six franchise's first playoff sweep since 2001. (April 25, 2025 / The Canadian Press)
His assist on Auston Matthews’s first goal of the post-season, early in the third period of Game 3, was a thing of beauty. Behind the Ottawa net, Marner took a pass from Morgan Rielly and redirected the puck to an open Matthews so quickly that Senators goalie Linus Ullmark couldn’t react.
“I was eye-on-eye with Rielly,” said Marner, reconstructing the play. “He just had to run it around to me. I had a quick glance around, and I knew Auston was there. I just had to get through one guy’s feet, and I was lucky enough to be able to do it with one touch.
“Usually if you give him that look, he’ll never miss it.”
Matthews didn’t, and there was an incredible similarity to the play when Marner set up Connor McDavid for the 4 Nations championship winner in overtime. Like in Game 3 against the Senators, Marner first made eye contact with the defenceman with the puck. At the 4 Nations, that was Cale Makar.
“He read the situation really well,” Makar said on his last visit to pc28with the Colorado Avalanche. “It was kind of a weird play. We literally made eye contact. Like, I looked at him and then just tried to rim it to him. And then obviously McDavid filled the middle.
“And I guess for those guys — for forwards in general — I think your main goal is to find space in the ice, and he’s really good at doing that. He identified that their defence wasn’t flexed on him, and he stayed down low and gave us a little bit of time. Marner’s pick up on the wall; it was obviously exceptional. And to make that play is a completely different thing. So, to be able to do that under pressure with guys coming at you is pretty special.”
Eye contact is unspoken communication, a skill that separates elite players from the pack.
“That was a pretty big goal,” Rielly said of the 4 Nations heroics. “We had a play like that against Nashville earlier in the year that was really similar. That just comes with playing with him over time, understanding how he sees the game. He’ll tell you what he wants. He’ll tell you what he expects at a certain place. It’s been really fun having the chance to play with him.”
Unlike in recent trips to the playoffs, every member of the Core Four is producing. Marner, Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares have more points in three games than they did in seven against Boston in the last post-season. Marner had a goal and two assists against the Bruins. Matthews has a goal and four assists this time, one point more than in his five games against Boston. Tavares has two goals and two assists in this series, a goal and an assist last year. William Nylander has a goal and three assists against the Senators, after three goals and no assists in four games against Boston last spring.
Throw in two goals from Rielly and the emerging presence of Matthew Knies and the Leafs’ best players on paper have also been their best on the ice.
In overtime on Thursday night, the Matthews line was out for the faceoff. On a set play, Matthews won the draw back to Simon Benoit, who beat Ullmark with Knies screening.
But it will all go for naught if the Leafs somehow fail to put away the Senators.
“The next one’s gonna be the hardest,” said Marner.
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