January 23rd is already one of the most anticipated days on the hockey calendar this season, as the Toronto Maple Leafs will host Mitch Marner for the first time with the Vegas Golden Knights. However, there is some disappointment amongst fans that Marner’s homecoming is buried on a random Friday in January instead of earning a more prominent date.
In the wake of the schedule release, Sportsnet play-by-play commentator Chris Cuthbert joined Nick Alberga and Jay Rosehill on Leafs Morning Take Friday. While he addressed the upset that Marner’s return to Toronto won’t come on a Saturday for Hockey Night in Canada, he said that realistically the schedule was done well before Marner’s move was completed.
“Mitch Marner didn’t become a Vegas Golden Knight until the end of June,” Cuthbert said. “I’m pretty sure that that schedule was etched in stone by the time Marner becomes a Vegas Golden Knight. With that said, of course we’d want him on a Saturday night, and that’s not gonna happen.”
You’d like to think the league would still have some leeway to tweak things to best market key games like this one, but of course there are many considerations in making the schedule. And yet, both matchups between the Golden Knights and the Leafs this season will come at the tail end of back-to-back contests for Vegas. This prompted speculation about the reasoning behind the decision, which will allow Marner to avoid morning media before facing his former team.
“It does raise these conspiracy theories that both times they play the Leafs, it’s the second game of a back-to-back,” Cuthbert commented. “That’s not media friendly, it’s probably Mitch Marner friendly. So maybe there’s a little bit of both going on there.”
No matter when it’s played, it’s still one of the most anticipated games on the Leafs schedule this season. Looking ahead to it, Cuthbert said he’s still unsure what kind of reception Marner may receive at Scotiabank Arena, considering the different circumstances for his return compared to other former Toronto skaters in the past.
“I’m really torn about this,” Cuthbert said. “Watching over the years, great players leaving the Leafs, most of them didn’t leave because they wanted to. … Curtis Joseph and Mitch Marner are probably the highest profile Leafs that left because they wanted to go.”
With where things stand right now, it’s hard to imagine there will be a very warm welcome for Mitch Marner in Toronto come this January. That being said, it remains to be seen how it’ll all play out. Between whatever tribute the team offers him and the kind of season he’s having in Vegas, we’ll see in the dead of winter if Toronto fans really are ready to ice him out.
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