After Not Making The All-Star Game, Mitch Marner Scores 7 Seconds Into Today's Game
Coming into today, Mitch Marner had tallied 53 points this season in just 39 games. Pretty decent year not a big deal or anything, casually has 40 assists at the half point in the season. Which actually puts him 6th in the entire NHL in points and 2nd in the Eastern Conference. You’d think those number would be good enough for an all-star game, but apparently not. Marner didn’t make the list of 6 forwards selected to the Atlantic’s team. So what did Marner do? In his first game since the announcement Marner scored 7 seconds into the game against the Wild, which ties a Toronto Maple Leafs franchise record. Marner would also add a 2nd goal about 5 minutes later.
Man can this kid play. It really does suck Marner couldn’t make the all-star game. Watching him play 3×3 with the league’s best would have been a pleasure. But Matthews and Tavares both had to make the team as well and it wouldn’t really make much sense to put 3 Leafs on a team of 6 forwards. It also sucks that every team has to be represented. Fuck that rule. If Mitch Marner is one of the best players in the NHL, he should be there. Morgan Reilly too. Buddy could win the Norris this season and couldn’t go to the All-Star game because it would have been too Leafs loaded.
Take the 24 best forwards in the NHL, regardless of the team, and put them into a draft….kind of like they used to do. While I’m sure these players would rather not get selected to the All-Star game because it could mean some valuable time off, it’s still bullshit some of these guys get snubbed. Especially the guys on their entry level deals of probably have big All-Star game incentive.
Marner can play though and will have enough money soon enough to not give two shits about all-star game incentives.