SIMMONS SAYS: This year, Marner’s playoff foes are weaker

Article content

Mitch Marner wasn’t run out of Toronto. He chose to leave.

Article content

He played nine seasons for the Maple Leafs, participated in 11 playoff series, rarely made a difference when it mattered most.

Article content

Article content

That had nothing to do with fans or media or atmosphere and everything to do with his own performance and his team’s performance, which was rarely good enough at playoff time.

Marner never met the moment: He never scored more than two goals in any single playoff round and unlike Friday night, not more than two goals in any single game.

He clearly needed a fresh start in Vegas to put the past behind him. In the 11 rounds he played with the Leafs, he scored one goal or fewer in five of those rounds. No goals in two of them. Against the Montreal Canadiens, in the worst playoff defeat of the Brendan Shanahan era, he never scored.

In fairness to the Maple Leafs, they never did get to play post-season rounds against Utah or Anaheim. They usually wound up with Florida or Tampa Bay or Boston as opponents. Usually, they wound up with teams averaging more than 105 points a season.

Article content

Article content

Utah and Anaheim, young quick teams, both had 92 points in the Western Conference this year. That wouldn’t have qualified them for playoffs in the East. The quality of opponent is not what Marner has faced in the past.

Marner moved back to the wing and scored three goals Friday night against the Ducks, playing on an unlikely line with workers William Karlsson and Brett Howden. It was his first career playoff hat trick.

It helps, who you are playing with, and who you are playing for, and helps when you’re playing against a lesser team. Marner had just a reasonable season in his first with the Golden Knights. He finished 25th in the NHL in scoring, way below previous levels.

But this is why they got him. To be a difference-maker when he wasn’t one before. His Maple Leaf playoff curse has ended. He currently leads all playoff scorers. The past he went West to get away from is now just the past.

The next round will be fascinating: Probably Colorado vs. Vegas, winner heading to the Stanley Cup final. It will be fascinating to see what Marner does when the level of opposition increases exponentially.

Article content

THIS AND THAT

Is Auston Matthews still a Top 10 player in the NHL? It depends on your math, your eyesight, your perspective. You begin the Top 10 with Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Nikita Kucherov and Leon Draisaitl all as obvious choices. Then you add in Macklin Celebrini, Quinn Hughes and David Pastrnak, pretty obvious also, to get to eight. And what comes after that? Maybe Jack Eichel? Maybe Matthew Schaefer? That’s the Top 10 a few general managers suggest. And that’s leaving out Nick Suzuki, Sidney Crosby, Sasha Barkov (who missed the season) and Kirill Kaprizov. So where’s Matthews in all of this? He has scored 60 goals twice, won a Hart Trophy, finished second once, was clearly a Top 10 players when he scored those elite numbers of goals. Now maybe he’s Top 15 with the second-highest salary in the game. Means trading him is the all more complicated, if that’s what Matthews wants … If the hockey world didn’t have enough reasons to hate the Leafs, their winning the NHL draft lottery didn’t help their popularity. It’s an awful blow for the Vancouver Canucks, who had the worst record in hockey and have never picked first in the draft. Poor Vancouver has not stopped grousing about losing out on Gilbert Perreault in 1970 … This is the third time the Leafs will pick first. The two other times, they drafted one of their most popular players in history, Wendel Clark and later wound up with Matthews. This year the choice looks to be Gavin McKenna, the speedy winger from Yukon. The last three players picked first in the draft have been spectacular — Schaefer, Celebrini and Connor Bedard, all of them game-changers. The three picks before that, Juraj Slafkovsky, Owen Power, and Alexis Lafreniere, are all still finding their way. Scouts who know best will tell you that McKenna is nowhere near the Schaefer-Celebrini class, but likely better than Power and Lafreniere. You wonder, with so much at play in Toronto, what happens if McKenna is selected and develops slowly the way Slafkovsky has, the way Lanny McDonald or Guy Lafleur did years ago: How does a fishbowl without patience react to that? … What I have been told about McKenna: He has Marner-like vision and creativity and a goal scorer’s shot. He doesn’t yet have Marner’s overall game comprehension or defensive acumen. The fact he led Penn State at scoring at the age of 17 — playing mostly against opponents four or five years older than him — is impressive. Which is something McKenna has been doing for years … I told someone where McKenna was from: They thought I said UConn … The likely second pick in the draft, Ivar Stenberg, is also a teenager who played against fossils in the Swedish Hockey League this season. The SHL is a veteran league, that’s the great learning part for Stenberg. What it isn’t, though, is a league with much talent. As a league, it’s AHL-lite … A high-level player agent offered the perfect question to ask Mats Sundin at the news conference Monday announcing with his position with the Leafs. “Could you name five players on the Utah Mammoth?” And if he couldn’t, what then is he doing in an upper-management role with an NHL team? … The first major decision for new GM John Chayka is what to do with coach Craig Berube. Chayka is the data-driven boss Keith Pelley demanded with the Maple Leafs. So does Chayka, the data man, keep Berube, whose numbers were atrocious in almost every meaningful way in this last season? What matters more here? The numbers, or the dollars that would have to be paid out to let Berube go? … Did anyone have a quieter first round than Brayden Point with the Tampa Bay Lighting? One point in seven games. Looking back, his big playoff years were five or more seasons back.

Article content

HEAR AND THERE

Is Scottie Barnes a Top 10 player in the NBA? If he’s not there already, he’s getting close. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic are clearly the top two players in the league and Victor Wembanyama is right there alongside them. That’s my top three. Now you find places for Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Edwards, Kawhi Leonard (still), and Luka Doncic. That’s bring you to seven. Then you have to figure what to do with old guys, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant. Maybe they’re still there. Maybe they’re slightly slipping with age. But Cade Cunningham, who leads the playoffs in scoring, should be Top 10, as should Knicks explosive guard Jalen Brunson. Which leaves Barnes, the Raptors superstar, where? Like Matthews in the NHL, probably just out of the Top 10. But unlike Matthews, Barnes is trending in the right direction. The Raptors have not had an elite player since the one season of Kawhi in Toronto or the Vince Carter years ago, back when he gave a damn … How much has the Blue Jays offence changed year over year? The Jays were first in on-base percentage last season. They’re last in it as of Saturday afternoon. They were second in runs scored in the American League last season, are 14th right now. They were 2nd in OPS in their pennant-winning season and are 13th today. It’s the same with walks and slugging, where they have dropped from third overall in both, and are currently last in walks and 12th in slugging. Their everyman approach kind of lineup, using all 27 outs, worked so well last year but isn’t working in 2026. The statistical drops, year to year, have been extreme … It doesn’t help that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has no home runs in his past 16 games and is hitting as quiet a .314 as possible … The Yankees waited until the 363rd pick in the 2021 MLB draft to select Ben Rice, who is now one of baseball’s best young hitters in the game. Rice’s OPS leads in the AL at 1.174, which is just below what Guerrero hit in the post-season last October.

Article content

SCENE AND HEARD

Sad to learn of the passing of Bobby Cox, one of the transformational figures in Blue Jays history. When he took over as manager of the Jays in 1982, the team had never won more than 67 games in a season. In Cox’s four years, the Jays won 78 games, then 89, then 89 and then a record 99 wins before he left to become general manager of the Atlanta Braves. He was inducted in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009 and in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014 … Six words to remember the late John Sterling forever: “The Yankees win, the Yankees win.” It sounded more distinct with his voice and style than it reads in print … What’s in a name? Well, Mark Shapiro, not the Blue Jays guy, is being paid $43 million a year as president of TKO Holdings, which happens to own and operate the WWE and the UFC … Good for Evan Bouchard, agreeing to play for Team Canada in Switzerland after not being chosen for the Olympic team, getting knocked out of the playoffs early in Edmonton and not being chosen a finalist for the Norris Trophy. There was a lot of reason for Bouchard to say no. Clearly he wants to change his own personal narrative … The third-year PWHL doesn’t make many mistakes, but apparently bypassing Quebec City for expansion and likely going to Hamilton seems foolish to me. Hamilton has a poor history with pro hockey. Quebec City is dying to get a pro team of some kind.

Article content

AND ANOTHER THING

Was thrilled to be in attendance for the Tempo’s first regular-season WNBA game in Toronto on Friday night. And the crowd was as much a part of the show as the game happened to be. Personally, I can now say I’ve been at the Blue Jays’ first game, the Raptors’ first game, the Leafs’ last game at Maple Leaf Gardens and first game at the Air Canada Centre. It feels special to witness these pierces of Toronto sporting history … The Tempo is charging major league bucks for its product and need to make some adjustments from opening night to make the experience a touch better. The lighting is not very good at Coca-Cola Coliseum. And the sound system is not very good. There’s a brightness missing in a less-than-perfect Coca-Cola Coliseum … Of all the celebrities introduced Friday night the largest applause came for retired Canadian soccer legend Christine Sinclair … Canada has SGA of this generation and Steve Nash of another generation, fabulous representatives of Canadian basketball. What Canada doesn’t have yet, a female basketball player of international acclaim … Advice from one of the best bosses I’ve ever had: It’s better to write the story than be the story … Heading into Saturday night, the Carolina Hurricanes played seven playoff games, won all seven, and allowed just eight goals against … Don Mattingly is 8-3 since taking over as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies … Embarrassing yourself, your team and your league is not a good look for Dylan (Don’t Care, work harder) Smoskowitz, or for any young coach looking to go places in the hockey world. “He tried to recover from it,” said an established NHL general manager, “but the damage was done. It’s unfortunate.” … It’s so easy to take Wayne Gretzky for granted all these years after his playing career is over, but consider this: Four of the Top 10 goal-scoring seasons in NHL history were accomplished by Gretzky. The other Top 10 scorers: Brett Hull, Mario Lemieux, Phil Esposito, Alex Mogilny, Jari Kurri and Teemu Selanne … But when it comes to playmaking, nine of the Top 10 assist scoring seasons were Gretzky’s, and you can actually extend that mark to 11 of the 12 best. McDavid and Kucherov, each owning one 100-assist season, are tied for 14th all-time … The first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs — especially Montreal-Tampa Bay; Philadelphia-Pittsburgh and Minnesota-Dallas — was exceptional to watch. The second round, so far, not so compelling … Happy birthday to Shawn O’Sullivan (64), Steve Yzerman (61), Alex Tuch (30), Calvin Murphy (78), Jamison Battle (25), Jerome Williams (53), Doug Christie (56), Prince Fielder (42) Cade Smith (27), Tito Santana (73) and Tony Twist (58) … And hey, whatever became of Brooks Orpik?

Article content