Marner coming up clutch in 1st playoffs with Golden Knights

SALT LAKE CITY -- Mitch Marner sat on the podium at Delta Center late Friday night as the first star of a big win in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The forward had three points (two goals, one assist) for the Vegas Golden Knights, who eliminated the Utah Mammoth 5-1 in Game 6 of the Western Conference First Round and advanced to face the Anaheim Ducks in the second round.

Is this what he envisioned when he came to Vegas?

"I think this is what I hoped for, for sure, an opportunity to do something special," Marner said. "Like I said when I first got here, I knew it was a special group."

Marner spent the first nine seasons of his NHL career with his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs. He put up big numbers. Last season, he set an NHL career high and ranked fifth in the League with 102 points (27 goals, 75 assists) in 81 games.

Toronto made the playoffs each season of Marner's tenure, if you include the qualifying round in 2020 when the format changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Maple Leafs won only two series and lost six Game 7s, and Marner took a chunk of the blame.

From 2022-25, he had 35 points (eight goals, 27 assists) in 28 games in Games 1-4 of a series but six assists in 14 games in Games 5-7. He had one assist in the final three games of a seven-game loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Second Round last year.

It was time for a change.

Marner went to Vegas in a trade July 1 and signed an eight-year, $96 million contract ($12 million average annual value). He joined a team that had won the Stanley Cup in 2023 and 12 playoff rounds since entering the NHL as an expansion team in 2017-18, one behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the League lead in that span.

The adjustment hasn't been easy. New city. New team. Marner has bounced around the lineup, playing all kinds of different roles, including playing center for essentially the first time in his NHL career. That has continued since John Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy as coach March 29.

In the regular season, Marner had 80 points (24 goals, 56 assists) in 81 games -- great for most players, but a 22-point drop-off for him. General manager Kelly McCrimmon praised him for all the little things he did and how he made the Golden Knights a better team.

In the first four games against Utah, he had three assists. Amid a lot of shuffling by Vegas, he moved from first-line left wing to second-line center and was replaced by Shea Theodore as the quarterback of the first power-play unit.

But in Games 5 and 6? 

He had four points (two goals, two assists).

In Game 5, he helped win a puck battle on the penalty kill to set up the winning short-handed goal by Brett Howden in a 5-4 double overtime victory.

In Game 6, he set up a goal by Howden to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead in the first period, scored to give them a 2-0 lead in the second and scored to give them a 4-1 lead in the third. He led Vegas with seven shots on goal.

"Yeah, it was his best game of the series," Tortorella said. "He just looked comfortable. I thought 'Howds' with him, it looked like a really good line. 'Mitchy' has been doing a lot of little things people don't understand, some small little plays, but he had some big plays tonight that everybody could see.

"Really good for him for his confidence going into the next series."

Marner's first goal summed up his new situation. The Golden Knights dominated the Mammoth on an epic shift, holding the puck in the offensive zone, changing personnel while their opponents were stuck, wearing them down with depth and playoff grit.

And Marner reaped the reward in the end.

"All four lines contributed throughout this series," Marner said. "There was different moments that we needed every line to step up and come in big, and every line did that. Yeah, this is what I hoped for. Now there's a lot more work to keep going."

Marner sat next to captain Mark Stone on the podium after the game. It was interesting to watch him as Stone spoke about the Golden Knights, who fell behind 2-1 in the series, took a 3-2 lead with two comeback OT wins and then finished off the Mammoth.

"We've been here before," Stone said. "We don't have the panic. Maybe some teams do. We can calm ourselves pretty quickly. You look at Games 4 and 5, it got away from us a little bit. We were able to calm ourselves down, tie the game and win it in overtime.

"Tonight was a little more flawless I'd say. When they scored to make it 2-1, we got right back on the saddle. It got loud in there. Same thing. The (fourth) line goes out there, wins a draw, gets the puck to the net and really, you could tell our bench gets some confidence after that."

Marner nodded along the whole time.