{"id":426073,"date":"2026-01-24T19:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T19:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/426073\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T19:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T19:39:12","slug":"heres-why-maple-leafs-fell-flat-in-mitch-marners-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/426073\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s Why Maple Leafs Fell Flat In Mitch Marner’s Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fanbase\u2014and the media\u2014had this date circled on the calendar since last summer. The most anticipated game of the season. Mitch Marner<\/a>\u2018s return to Toronto with his Vegas Golden Knights<\/a>. The excitement and anticipation around town were sky-high. The atmosphere\u2014and tension\u2014 in Scotiabank Arena Friday night as the opening face-off approached was playoff-like delirium.<\/p>\n

The only people in the building, unfortunately, who didn\u2019t get the memo were the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> players themselves. One minute in, and the Golden Knights were up 1-0. Three and a half minutes later, it was 2-0. They were outshot 10-5 in the first period. The Leafs never quite recovered, losing Marner\u2019s return 6-3.<\/p>\n

Why did Maple Leafs come out flat against Marner & the Golden Knights?<\/p>\n

So why did the home side not bring the intensity needed in such an obviously significant contest? <\/p>\n

In the days leading up to the big game, Leafs players just didn\u2019t seem anywhere near as juiced as the fans. <\/p>\n

Auston Matthews<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019ve had enough of the Mitch questions.\u201d And leading up to the game on Friday: crickets. No media availability.<\/p>\n

Translated: \u2018It\u2019s just another game.\u2019<\/p>\n

John Tavares: \u201cYou put the gear on, you got to go out there and play. So I\u2019m sure there\u2019ll be a lot of things that he\u2019s feeling but \u2026 at the end of the day, both sides, once the puck drops, you\u2019re trying to get in the flow of the game and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translated: \u2018It\u2019s just another game.\u2019<\/p>\n

Morgan Rielly (the longest-serving Leaf): \u201cJust another game,\u201d Rielly said. \u201cWe played him once this year, and I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll have emotions coming back, but ultimately for us we\u2019re just focusing on going out there and playing \u2026 it\u2019s important points.\u201d<\/p>\n

No translation needed there. He said it himself.<\/p>\n

Maybe next time the Leafs players tell us \u2018It\u2019s just another game,\u2019 we should believe them. Because this was just another one of those \u2018not showing up to start the game\u2019 efforts that we\u2019ve seen time and time again during this era of the team. <\/p>\n

Berube not happy with effort, but must shoulder some of the blame<\/p>\n

Head coach Craig Berube<\/a> would have been scratching his head about his team\u2019s effort, if not for the mysterious, huge, nasty gash on his scalp (said to be a \u2018mishap at the gym\u2019). <\/p>\n

They were on their toes, and we weren\u2019t. We got behind the 8-ball pretty early\u2026 The standard has to be better and higher. We\u2019re at home. We\u2019re not playing consistently enough and with the urgency that is needed.<\/p>\n

To be sure, Berube and the coaching staff aren\u2019t totally without blame here. They made the puzzling decision to start a rusty Anthony Stolarz between the pipes\u2014his first appearance in a hockey game that counts in two and a half months. An odd choice for such a noteworthy occasion.<\/p>\n

Overall, we can just add this one to the long list of perplexing, disappointing nights for the Blue & White. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fanbase\u2014and the media\u2014had this date circled on the calendar since last summer. The most anticipated game of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5129],"tags":[532,149,5317,5,611,533,4,31,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-426073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-auston-matthews","9":"tag-golden-knights","10":"tag-goldenknights","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-john-tavares","13":"tag-mitch-marner","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","16":"tag-vegas","17":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","18":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115951774233508459","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426073","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=426073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}