TORONTO — Mitch Marner brought the good stuff. In the third period, the Toronto Maple Leafs right wing executed one of his trademark twirls and slipped a backhand puck into the net for his team’s only goal. Marner briefly proved Jeremy Swayman is normal.
The trouble with Marner is that he did none of this in the first two periods of Game 4.
Brad Marchand, meanwhile, was everywhere all night.
Marner is 26. Marchand turns 36 in less than two weeks. Both are signed through 2025.
At this point, only one of them projects to stay with his current employer.
A television camera caught Marner ditching his gloves in frustration on the bench during Game 4. Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander are stuck in the soup, sniping all around at each other.
Amid all the noise, Marchand is keeping his eyes forward, temper in check and nose clean.
The Boston Bruins captain (3-5—8) trails only Connor McDavid in postseason scoring. He has a luxury condo in Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe’s head. Marchand’s next visit to the penalty box will be his first. He knows the job is not over, not when the Bruins are up 3-1 in the first round for the second straight year.
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“It has no bearing on our group,” Marchand said of last year’s gurgle against the Florida Panthers. “We have a different group. Lot of new guys. Different team. It’s a completely different season. Nothing about that has anything to do with this series. We’ve done a great job of staying in the moment. That’s what you have to do. You can’t worry about a previous game, previous shift. It’s all about the next — the next moment, the next play.”
Marchand scored a goal and assist in Game 4. It wasn’t just any goal. It was his 56th career postseason strike, catapulting him ahead of Cam Neely as the organization’s most prolific playoff finisher.
In the playoffs, every shot is important. Even more so against an unpredictable goalie like Ilya Samsonov. In the second period, it didn’t matter that Charlie McAvoy set up Marchand for a one-timer, which is not his strength. Marchand identified that Samsonov was leaning the wrong way. So from outside and below the dot, Marchand one-timed a bad-angle puck past Samsonov for the deciding goal. At every turn, Samsonov is coming up short against Swayman.
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In the final minute of the second, Marchand pulled off one of his trademark high-speed plays. In full flight, Marchand chased down Pavel Zacha’s chip, flicked the puck out of TJ Brodie’s stick, kicked the rubber down to his blade and handed it off to David Pastrnak. Pastrnak, quiet through three games, slammed home the shot he hopes will bring him to life.
The Bruins need No. 88, both to finish off the Leafs and continue advancing through the Eastern Conference heavyweights. Marchand knows this. It may be why he passed instead of shooting. A captain’s job is to encourage his teammates toward peak performance.
“Last two games here, he created so much for our team,” Pastrnak said. “Not only the production is coming for him the last couple games. He’s all over the ice. He’s killing for us. He’s playing big minutes. He got a couple goals on the power play. He’s our captain. He definitely leads us the right way the last two games. It’s easy to follow when your captain is leading.”
In the regular season, Pastrnak recorded 382 shots. Only Nathan MacKinnon (405) had more. With his game still muted, Pastrnak is second on the team with 11 postseason shots.
Guess who has the most.
While Marchand has a team-high 14 shots, Marner is No. 8 on the Leafs with only seven. Marner is a playmaker. But the Leafs require more volume from their sublimely skilled wing and his high-powered friends.
The Bruins treated their two-game visit to Toronto as a business trip. As they snaked their way off the ice, through the hallway and up the stairs from the visiting bench to their dressing room, they did so without making much noise. With Marchand setting the tone, the Bruins approached Games 3 and 4 with what coach Jim Montgomery termed a quiet confidence.
“We know we’ve got to bring our own energy in an away arena,” said Swayman. “I’m so happy with the guys in this locker room and our leaders, Marshy in particular, to have a voice every time we come in this locker room and be juicing us. That’s really special because when we’re making our own energy, our own noise, it’s going to be pretty hard to beat us.”
Patrice Bergeron had a knack of leading his teammates with empathy and care. Marchand is not this kind of person. His preference is to run facefirst into the fire and engage everybody in enemy colors and inspire everyone to follow. He leans on others to pitch in with verbal motivation.
“Obviously, I’m an emotional guy,” said Marchand. “This time of year, so much is run by adrenaline and emotion. That’s where the vocal part of it, in the room and on the bench, carries onto the ice. We have a lot of guys like that. Just simple reminders. I think that’s the biggest thing. We’re learning as a group of new leaders. The more we communicate together, the better games we put on the ice. We have a lot of guys right now that are stepping up. I’ve been so impressed with (Charlie) Coyle this year, the way he’s stepped up vocally. He’s never really been a vocal leader in our room. He’s taken it to a whole other level with that.”
Marchand and the Bruins are lifting each other up. Marner and his teammates are picking each other apart.
(Photo: Gavin Napier / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
