As the Toronto Maple Leafs published their full schedule Wednesday, there’s no doubt just about every hockey fan in the GTA immediately circled one matchup on their calendar.
On January 23rd, Toronto will host Mitch Marner and the Vegas Golden Knights in the longtime Leafs’ first game back in his new team colours.
Ahead of the schedule release Wednesday, NHL analyst Pierre McGuire joined Nick Alberga and Jay Rosehill on Leafs Morning Take. Asked about the kind of reception he expects for Marner when he returns to Toronto, McGuire compared it to what John Tavares experienced in New York when facing the Islanders.
“It will be nasty, it will be a lot like when Tavares went back to Long Island,” McGuire said. “What happened to John Tavares when he went back to Long Island wasn’t very hospitable, and he’s about as nice a guy you can get. He did a lot of amazing things there for the New York Islanders for a long period of time, but it shows you how angry the fans were. You can understand, they felt jilted. I think the same thing is going to happen when Mitchell comes back to Toronto. I don’t think there will be any warm fuzzy stuff going on.”
Based on the dramatic circumstances surrounding Marner’s exit, it’s hard to disagree. While he was regularly a team-leader in points through his nine years with his hometown team, his lacklustre playoff performances and speculation that he had one foot out the door through his final year in Toronto have overshadowed any goodwill he had in the city.
A former coach himself, McGuire also spoke to the importance of a team’s schedule from a management perspective. While it’s easy to dismiss the order of the games as unimportant, considering you want the win either way, McGuire gave his two cents on the value of performing well early in the year.
“Two points in October are the same as two points in March, the difference is that you wanna get momentum early, so that you can stabilize your program,” McGuire said. “The more success you have early on, the better it is that your players believe in the coaching message that is being presented.”
With Craig Berube heading into his sophomore season as Toronto’s head coach, a lot has been made about the physical style of hockey he expects from his team. In his first year at the helm, he had good buy-in overall, but now will look to really lean into his brand of hockey with a team more of his making in year two.
Starting with a (relatively) light schedule in the month of October, the team has the chance to come out strong and assert their dominance early, and at the same time get their ducks in a row for those bigger matchups that will come deeper in the year.
You can watch the full interview here:
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