Mitch Marner was the hero on Wednesday for Team Canada at the Winter Olympic Games.
Canada was minutes away from being eliminated from the men’s hockey tournament before youngster Nick Suzuki saved them with a goal.
In overtime, though, it was the newest star of the Las Vegas Golden Knights who came up big in the clutch. Marner took it himself up the ice and took on the responsibility of being the hero in the 3-on-3 overtime, beating the Czechia sticks to score the game-winning goal.
Marner entered the most recent NHL season with his new team as a player who couldn’t get it done in the big moments.
Mark Stone, who plays with Marner on Team Canada, wanted to put that narrative to rest.
It isn’t Marner who wasn’t clutch.
It was his former team, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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“As a teammate, I haven’t experienced that,” Stone said. “Four Nations, gets a huge OT goal for us, makes an incredible play for the winner. Then tonight, when we need him the most, he makes the play.
“I think it’s a Toronto thing.”
The quote is a gut punch for every Maple Leaf fan around the world, who believed that Marner, along with Team USA superstar Auston Matthews, could be the one-two punch to help them reach their first Stanley Cup Final in over three decades.
Toronto never even made it to the Eastern Conference Final with Marner and Matthews, with the former being traded to the Golden Knights during the offseason.
It is an unorthodox position that Canadian Leaf fans now find themselves in, seeing Stone belittle their team while their face of the franchise, Matthews, leads the USA.
Marner and Matthews would meet in the gold medal game if both teams win their upcoming matches.
Canada will take on Finland in the semifinals on Friday.
