Maple Leafs' Marner, Matthews reflect on 4 Nations Face-Off experience

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Hot take: Mitch Marner had a better Friday than Auston Matthews.

Gee, you think?

The Maple Leafs pair travelled home together home from Boston, where the thinnest of margins made Marner a champion with Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, at the same time leaving a bitter taste in the mouth of Matthews and his United States teammates.

Marner created that thin margin in overtime when he set up Connor McDavid for the winner on Thursday night at TD Garden; Matthews, who had three shots on goal in the extra period, came within a whisker of breaking up Marner’s pass, but missed the puck and turned in time to watch McDavid beat goaltender Connor Hellebuyck from the slot.

After touching down in Toronto a day earlier, Matthews and Marner spoke to media on Saturday morning at Scotiabank Arena ahead of the Leafs’ game against the Carolina Hurricanes.

“I think that’s part of life,” Matthews said of coming so close to winning at the 4 Nations, but failing. “It’s not always going to work out in your favour. For me, it sucks, but there’s nothing that I can do to fix that now.

“It definitely still stings. But you have to flip the page here, and it’s a pretty quick turnaround. Got to get focus back, happy to be back here with the team, see the guys again after a couple weeks and just keep pushing.”

Marner was excellent for Canada throughout the game and it was fitting that he was such an integral piece in the deciding goal. As the puck came around the end boards off the stick of Cale Makar, Marner knew what he had to do.

“I just tried to get it on and off the wall as quick as I could,” Marner said. “I knew Connor was in that slot area. He was just trying to find a quiet spot on the ice. Once he did that, just try to get it on and off my stick as quick as I could, find him in the slot and let him do the rest.”

Did Marner realize it was Matthews who was closing in on him?

“It’s kind of tough in that moment to see,” Marner said. “I didn’t know he was on the ice for sure, just with how they’re running their D zone. I knew it was kind of bit of a tough spot for their D-man (Adam Fox) and their centreman in that spot to decide who was going to challenge that.”

Matthews acknowledged that the sting of losing, and doing so in that particular way, can be a motivating factor in what remains of the Leafs’ regular season and into the playoffs.

For both players, having been factors in such a significant, intense game — Matthews had the primary assist on both U.S. goals — has to be a springboard to what they can provide in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Post-season success hasn’t happened yet, given that just one playoff round in the Matthews/Marner era has ended in victory for the Leafs, but each now has a crucial defining experience that had been absent.

“I don’t really like to look forward too much,” Marner said. “I like to try to be in here and now. When we get to that further point, we’ll think about that, but for now, it’s just take what you learned in that tournament and try to bring it here.”

We asked each player what his biggest takeaway was from the tournament.

Marner was more specific with his answer, and perhaps giving a nod as to how the Leafs might respond in the playoffs when there is adversity.

“Through the whole thing, how competitive everything was, how many times (there was) positivity on our bench, positivity in our locker room,” Marner said. “Once stuff like that gets said a lot, you really start to believe everything. You try to take that into this locker room.”

Matthews took a wider view.

“It was a lot of fun, the experience itself, you never know how many opportunities you’re going to get like that,” Matthews said. “We’ve missed two Olympics already so far, so I think there was definitely a lot of anticipation, a lot of excitement to be able to have an opportunity like that. I feel fortunate to have these last two weeks, it was a great group of guys, great to be back with friends and get to know new people as well. Definitely a lot of fun.”

Both players spoke of the taxing nature of the tournament, mentally and physically, though it didn’t appear like either gave much thought to taking some time off upon returning. Not that we would have expected them to.

And on that short flight home, it was back to being Leafs teammates with a common goal.

“We have a great relationship,” Matthews said. “He’s a close friend. It’s not the way we wanted it to end, but it was just cool to catch up, be together again, spend some time. The focus now turns to this regular season and the last couple of months.”

Said Marner: “We just enjoyed the tournament. We talked about how much fun it was, talked about looking forward to getting back to here and trying to take on bigger things now.”

Leafs Nation awaits.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

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