Babcock heaps praise on Marner following another dominating three point performance

This kid is playing out of his mind lately. One of the best players in the NHL, no question.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Babcock heaps praise on Marner following another dominating three point performance
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In case you missed it, the Toronto Maple Leafs managed to get past the Boston Bruins 4-2 last night thanks in large part to three assists from Leafs forward Mitch Marner, who now leads the NHL in assists with 25 this season. The 21 year old forward is blossoming right in front of our very eyes and there’s no one more excited to stand witness to his development then head coach Mike Babcock.

Check out what Babcock had to say about Marner following last night’s victory:

I think that’s what you think with all good players, is it not? If you are watching them, you think when #88 (David Pastrnak) gets the puck, he is playing a different game than everybody else, too.
What is amazing is that most of us have no time and space whatsoever. We’re just banging it here and banging it there and chasing it. The other guys just seem to have all the time in the world. That’s what you’re talking about. They’re gliding all over the rink and it seems effortless and it seems like fun. It seems like they have the puck all the time and you can’t figure out why. They’re just better than everybody else.


Indeed Marner has been “better than everybody else” for awhile now. It’s only a matter of time until fans around the NHL wake up to just how good this kid truly is. He’s not merely a complimentary player in Auston Matthews’ or John Tavares’ shadow… he’s a player capable of driving offence, putting up points and winning hockey games on his own.

As for the rest of his team’s performance last night, Babcock was satisfied:

I thought, to be honest with you, we got off to a good start. I thought we were playing good. I thought they were better than us in the second period, especially in the first 15 minutes. They had two power plays where we couldn’t clear the puck. We had multiple opportunities to and we didn’t, and then they scored.
They didn’t score on the second one, but they could’ve easily scored. I thought it took us a while to kind of recover after that and get playing the way we could. And then I thought the third period was pretty even.
The power plays — obviously, we scored on the power play, but their power play was very dangerous the two times they had it there in the second. I thought that was when they tilted the game and had it going their way.


Next up on the Leafs schedule is the San Jose Sharks at home in Toronto tomorrow evening. The team is currently riding a two game winning streak and is 7-3-0 in their last 10 games.


For full video of Babcock discussing Marner and last night's game, check out the clip below:


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