Marner returns to mixed emotions in 1st game in Toronto as Golden Knight

TORONTO -- Mitch Marner, his gut churning with nerves, stepped out of the Vegas Golden Knights dressing room Friday en route for warmups on the same Scotiabank Arena ice surface he’d played on as a Toronto Maple Leaf for nine seasons.

Suddenly, he spotted a couple of kids standing behind a rope barrier nearby, one of them wearing a Marner No. 16 Maple Leafs jersey, and gave them a fist bump before disappearing down the corridor to join the rest of his teammates.

“We love you Mitch,” the kids screamed.

It wasn’t a sentiment shared by everyone in the sellout crowd of 19,305. Anything but.

In the end, the Maple Leafs' home rink on this night was a cauldron of mixed emotions, with volatility winning out over appreciation on this, Marner’s first game in Toronto as a Vegas Golden Knight.

Off the ice, the boo birds outscored the cheers.

On the ice, the Golden Knights outscored the Maple Leafs.

The final score: Vegas 6, Toronto 3.

For Marner and his teammates, that’s what mattered the most.

Not to mention that this game, the anticipation of which had mushroomed into a circus-like atmosphere among the polarized Maple Leafs fan base, was finally done with, at least for Marner himself.

“Passionate fan base here,” the 28-year-old said afterward when asked to sum up the evening. “They love their team.

“It was interesting the whole night.”

A night filled with its share of jeers aimed directly at him.

“It just felt odd and weird,” he said of the experience. “Just happy to get the two points. And yeah, just a sense of relief now that it’s over.

“I mean, definitely honestly, yeah. I mean, I don’t have to talk about it anymore. And I’m sure those guys (with the Maple Leafs) are relieved they don’t have to talk about it anymore.”

Maybe. But in the days leading up to the game, there was no shortage of chatter about Marner’s return, whether it be on the radio, on television, wherever.

Indeed, it’s been the talk of the town.

Case in point: driving on the Gardiner Expressway, the main highway that cleaves through the skyscrapers of downtown Toronto, a huge billboard just a slap shot away from Scotiabank Arena sported the message: "HEY MITCH, DON’T CHOKE." The sarcastic advice came courtesy of Shoeless Joe’s Sports Bar.

It was symbolic of the bitterness a segment of this hockey-crazed fan base harbors for him.

Yes, Marner was selected No. 4 overall by Toronto in the 2015 NHL Draft and went on to produce 741 points (221 goals, 520 assists) in 657 games with the Maple Leafs, ranking him sixth on the franchise’s all-time points list.

But some detractors still point to the fact that the Maple Leafs won just two Stanley Cup Playoff series in his nine seasons in Toronto, making him a scapegoat while other underachieving stars such as forwards Auston Matthews, John Tavares and William Nylander did not get the same type of postseason scrutiny.

Some were disgruntled that he did not waive his no-movement clause last season when the Maple Leafs were in negotiations with the Carolina Hurricanes to acquire forward Mikko Rantanen.

And there are the critics who feel he bailed on the team when he agreed to an eight-year, $96 million contract as part of the sign-and-trade that sent him to Vegas on the eve of his unrestricted free agency, rather than returning to Toronto.

Cue the vitriol.

He was booed when he stepped on the ice for the pregame warmup, a reaction he said he’d kind of expected. At the same time, there were plenty of signs in the crowd supporting him, the most common of which said, “We miss you Mitch.”

Of course, it didn’t sound that way from the moment the opening puck was dropped. With Marner on the ice as part of the Vegas starting lineup, a move purposely made by Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy to acknowledge the forward’s return to his home town, he was jeered from that moment until his shift was over.

Then, as he stepped off the ice, the crowd mocked him by cheering.

“Yeah, the cheers when I was coming off were pretty funny,” Marner said. “I didn’t see that one coming. But yeah, the booing, it was expected. I just tried to play through it.”

Asked about the cheers for Marner at the end of his shift, Cassidy chuckled.

“I’ve never seen that before. Not sure why they cheered. Personally I didn’t think their shift was very good,” a laughing Cassidy joked, tongue planted firmly in cheek.

On a more serious note, Cassidy said: “Look, fans are entitled to react how they want. They pay money to come to the games.”

Several minutes later, there were more cheers for Marner. This time they were genuine. It came when the Maple Leafs ran a tribute video for Marner. There were boos sprinkled in, sure, but it would be the only positive reaction, as a whole, he would hear all night.

Marner responded by skating around in the neutral zone, pointing at his heart and gesturing up to the broadcast booth at Maple Leafs play-by-play man Joe Bowen.

“I was trying to give my love back and just get back into the game,” Marner said, adding that his acknowledgement to Bowen was in recognition of having the privilege of having his name called by the Hall of Fame broadcaster for almost a decade.

Once the final horn sounded, Marner had 17:25 of ice time, was held pointless, had one shot on goal and finished even.

As for the reception he received, members of the Golden Knights didn’t think it was that bad.

“That was nothing,” Vegas director of goaltending Sean Burke said. “I remember all the times I was booed by the Philadelphia fans. And that was when I was the Flyers goaltender.”

Sitting in the visiting management suite in the press box, Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon watched the proceedings with keen interest. It was McCrimmon who had targeted Marner, feeling he was a key piece in the Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup aspirations.

“I feel getting this game out of the way was good in that it came post-Christmas,” McCrimmon said during the second intermission. “It allowed Mitch to get settled in with us. We’re very pleased with the way he’s fit in and helped us.”

Moments later, at the start of the third period, some in the crowd starting chanting, “We don’t need you” at Marner.

Given the Maple Leafs (24-18-9) have 57 points and find themselves three behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference, that’s debatable.

What isn’t debatable is how Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel helped Marner get through this night.

The former Buffalo Sabre was himself booed every time he stepped on the ice during his first game back in Buffalo on March 10, 2022. He’d scored 355 points (139 goals, 216 assists) in 375 NHL games with Buffalo from 2015-21 but was traded to Vegas when he and the Sabres parted ways because of a disagreement on how to treat a herniated disc in his neck.

“This tonight was nowhere near as loud or vocal as when I was back in Buffalo that night,” Eichel, who had two points (one goal, one assist) and finished plus-3, told NHL.com as he was leaving the arena. “And look, we all knew how special this was for Mitch. This was no ordinary game. We wanted this for him.

“He was a great Maple Leaf for a lot of years. He did a lot for that organization. But he’s ours now, and we love that.

“It’s time to move forward."

For Marner. For the Golden Knights. And, yes, for the Maple Leafs and their fans too, no matter what hard feelings there still may be.