{"id":426008,"date":"2026-01-24T18:53:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T18:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/426008\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T18:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T18:53:17","slug":"mitch-marner-drops-relief-truth-bomb-after-victory-in-toronto-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/426008\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitch Marner drops &#8216;relief&#8217; truth bomb after victory in Toronto return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was an emotional night Friday for <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nhl\/vegas-golden-knights\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> star <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/mitch-marner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mitch Marner<\/a>. Marner was returning to Toronto, to play against his old club the Maple Leafs. <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nhl\/vegas-golden-knights\/golden-knights-news-former-leaf-mitch-marner-receives-a-chorus-of-boos-in-his-return-to-toronto-with-golden-knights\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">While Maple Leafs fans booed Marner<\/a>, it turned out to be a good night for the winger.<\/p>\n<p>Vegas defeated Toronto, 6-3. Marner didn&#8217;t hold back about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/news\/mitch-marner-returns-to-toronto-as-golden-knight-with-mixed-emotions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">how it felt to play<\/a> against his former team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt just felt odd and weird,\u201d Marner said of the experience, per NHL.com. \u201cJust happy to get the two points. And yeah, just a sense of relief now that it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, definitely honestly, yeah. I mean, I don\u2019t have to talk about it anymore. And I\u2019m sure those guys (with the Maple Leafs) are relieved they don\u2019t have to talk about it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Golden Knights have 62 points on the season, following the win. Vegas now holds a 25-13-12 record.<\/p>\n<p>Mitch Marner didn&#8217;t have it easy against the Maple Leafs<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3678679\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mitch-Marner-drops-brutally-honest-take-ahead-of-Toronto-return-2.jpg\" alt=\"Vegas Golden Knights right wing Mitch Marner (93) skates against the Philadelphia Flylers during the first period at T-Mobile Arena.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/>\u00a9 Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>During warmups, Marner didn&#8217;t exactly get a warm welcome from the Toronto fans. Maple Leafs fans showered him with some boos.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPassionate fan base here,\u201d Marner added. \u201cThey love their team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was a quiet night overall for the Golden Knights winger. Marner had just one shot on goal against Toronto, and finished the game with no points. This season with Vegas, <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nhl\/vegas-golden-knights\/golden-knights-news-mitch-marner-lighter-fresh-start-vegas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marner has 52 total points in 50 games played<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Marner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/story\/_\/id\/47709569\/mitch-marner-booed-toronto-return-golden-knights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">didn&#8217;t hide the fact<\/a> that it was a moving night for him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was trying to just take it in and not get emotional,\u201d Marner said, per ESPN. \u201cStill got a lot of love for these fans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marner relied heavily on the support of his teammate, Jack Eichel. Eichel came to Vegas in 2021 after playing with the Buffalo Sabres. He didn&#8217;t receive a warm welcome either when he returned to Buffalo to play.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis tonight was nowhere near as loud or vocal as when I was back in Buffalo that night,\u201d Eichel said, per NHL.com. \u201cAnd look, we all knew how special this was for Mitch. This was no ordinary game. We wanted this for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t all bad for Marner though, from Leafs fans. Some brought signs showing their support for the winger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was an emotional night Friday for Vegas Golden Knights star Mitch Marner. Marner was returning to Toronto,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,533,4,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-426008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-golden-knights","9":"tag-goldenknights","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-mitch-marner","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-vegas","14":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","15":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}