Frederik Andersen’s stick save with a little more than two minutes left in the third period of Game 3 stole most of the headlines as far as outstanding individual plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs in their 4-2 win against the Boston Bruins. It was a save-of-the-year, perhaps a save- of-all-time candidate. It was that good.
However, Morgan Rielly’s stretch pass to Mitchell Marner which led to a 2-on-1 and Patrick Marleau’s goal, putting the Maple Leafs up 2-1 at the 3:49 mark of the second period is worthy of recognition, too.
It seemed to the untrained eye to be a bit of a fluke, but was far from it. A lot of things happened in a short amount of time that, coupled with Marner’s incredible skill set, led to the goal – a crucial one, coming just 43 seconds after Boston tied the game.
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First, Marner comes to the point to challenge David Pastrnak’s shot.
Then, he looks back, sees Pastrnak’s shot go wide and at that point, locks eyes with defenseman Morgan Rielly.
Marner also sees that defenseman Ron Hainsey is in good position on Patrice Bergeron in the slot and that Rielly will win the race to the loose puck behind the net. At that point, Marner takes off down the ice. Rielly sees that Marner is even with Pastrnak at the blueline and that Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller is skating towards the Toronto zone to come in behind Pastrnak. Rielly recognizes Marner will beat them both up the ice. It’s at this point that Marner and Rielly know exactly what the other is thinking.
“We made eye contact pretty early and I knew where he was going, so it was all on him getting to that spot,” said Rielly on Wednesday. “That’s what makes it work.”
Patrick Marleau (38 years, 213 days) is the oldest player in @MapleLeafs franchise history to score a goal in the #StanleyCup Playoffs, eclipsing the mark set by Norm Ullman (38 years, 109 days) in Game 4 of the 1974 Quarterfinals vs. BOS. #NHLStats #BOSvsTOR pic.twitter.com/PLkfF7E5bK
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 17, 2018
Marner’s position above all five Bruins on the ice also told Rielly that even if he was not able to handle the long pass, Marner would win the race to the puck preventing an icing on the play. Otherwise, to end up with a defensive zone faceoff is a risk not worth taking at that point in the game with the score tied 1-1.
“He got behind the D-man so even if he missed it, it wouldn’t have gone for icing so you have to kind of read that a little bit,” said Rielly.
But Rielly really never doubted Marner could knock it down.
“You know who you’re passing to with him so often times you just have to put it in his area and he’ll get it,” said Rielly.
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Rielly is not the only Maple Leafs defenseman who feels that way. Travis Dermott said stretching the play has been a big part of the Maple Leafs offensive attack and that having players like Marner who are so adept at corralling pucks gives the defense another option.
“Stretching out the zone is a big part of our game to make space. If I don’t have any options and that stretch guy is there and I know I can fire a wrister down the ice and he can even tip it so it’s not icing, it’s huge,” explained Dermott, who was watching from the bench. “It’s an option that really makes it easier and takes stress off our back for sure.”
Earlier in the season, coach Mike Babcock related a story about what Gordie Howe told him years ago when he was coaching the Detroit Red Wings. Babcock recalled that Howe always told his teammates to get him the puck as quickly as possible. Don’t worry about settling it down if it is rolling or waiting an extra second, just get it up and he’d take care of the rest. “Just give it to me dirty,” Howe would say. Babcock’s point was let elite players go to work, but you’ve got to get them the puck before they can do so.
“(Morgan) wasn’t in trouble there, he was skating with the puck; Mitch had stretched it out and the way it came off the boards, it bounced and he was able to handle it. You give good players the puck, they pick it up,” said Babcock. “You can’t give a good player a bad pass. That was the reason why, they can pick it up.”
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Very few players can make the play that Marner did, knocking down the long pass from Rielly at full speed with a defenseman bearing down on him. To Babcock’s point, though, that’s what makes Marner elite.
It did not catch Marleau by surprise either. That’s why he was busy outracing defenseman Torey Krug to the net to create a 2-on-1. He was expecting a pass in a couple of seconds.
“I’m expecting it. You have to go to the net like you’re expecting it I think and especially with him because he’s so good at making those plays,” said Marleau. “His edges on his skates are so good. He can twist and turn his hips and body to make it so it’s catchable. He’s really good at it and he works at it, he’s put a lot of work in over the years.”
Marner, not surprisingly, was bashful when asked about the play and deflected praise from himself towards Rielly and Marleau.
“It’s kind of lucky. I kind of picked it up the last second, it hit my foot and got up in the air,” said Marner. “Lucky enough I got it down on the ice, flattened it out and Marleau made a hell of a play fighting of Torey Krug to put that in.”
Rielly was less reserved though in his praise of Marner.
“It’s incredible. Mitch has got a very high level of skill and he works on this stuff during the off season and practice so you know it’s not a fluke,” said Rielly. “That’s something he’s been working on for a long time. We see it every day.”
Added Dermott: “You watch our top skilled guys, those top few lines and those guys can knock down a pass within five feet of them, most of the time. It’s tremendous skill and I almost look at it now like it’s second nature, I just kind of expect them to pick it up. If you’re not a person with a trained eye though, it’s pretty impressive to see what he can do.”