Regarding Mitch Marner’s ability to grow a full moustache for Movember.
Let’s just say the Maple Leafs winger has been looking great on the ice, and it has nothing to do with his facial hair.
With Leafs forwards forming a long line at the doctor’s office — David Kampf, who was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday with a lower-body injury, has joined Auston Matthews (upper body), Max Pacioretty (lower body) and Calle Jarnkrok (groin/sports hernia) — Marner has excelled and played a major role in Toronto’s recent success.
“You’re seeing right now, in a lot of ways, that he’s putting the team on his back,” Leafs general manager Brad Treliving said on Tuesday. “There are not too many guys who can do it on both sides of the puck. He’s a star in the league. He’s a special player. He can do it all.”
The Leafs have won five of the past six games that Matthews hasn’t played, and they will have to go again without their captain when they play host to the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena.
Treliving indicated there’s a chance that Matthews could play in the Leafs’ following game, at home against Utah on Sunday, but it’s more likely that Matthews would return on the Leafs’ two-game trip next week to Florida and Tampa Bay.
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Marner has 10 points — four goals and six assists — in the past six games, a sublime run that was capped when he scored in overtime against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. In the bigger picture, the Leafs have settled into second place in the Atlantic Division and were a point behind first-place Florida, which visited the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday.
Leafs coach Craig Berube already had gone into juggling mode up the middle among his bottom six, and the absence of Kampf for at least Wednesday forced the team to recall Fraser Minten from the Toronto Marlies.
The idea of using William Nylander at centre on a consistent basis didn’t get much traction in camp.
How about Marner at centre?
“I talked to Mitch the other day about it, actually,” Berube said. “He said, ‘No problem, whatever you want.’
“He’s smart enough, for sure. I know he has played some defence here in the past. I think he could play all positions. It’s definitely an option if we need it. He’s the guy who can go in there and understand the positioning of what to do. I guess you have to worry about faceoffs a little bit, but he’s a guy that we can use there.”
The discussion might not be necessary if the Leafs were getting more production, really any production, from Max Domi. The latter practised on Monday after missing the previous two practices as he continues to deal with an injury that the Leafs haven’t specified publicly. Domi has been healthy enough to play, though, and he carries a career-high 13-game pointless drought into the game on Wednesday.
Domi has no goals and six assists in 19 games, and he has not put his name on the scoresheet since Oct. 21, when he had an assist against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“He’s banged up, but I’m not overly concerned,” Berube said. “We have to keep working through it.
“We’re trying to get him to get to the hard areas a little bit more on the ice, and get some goals there. We put him in the bumper on the power play on the second unit last game to get him in that middle of the ice.
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“I have full belief in Max. He’ll be fine. He’ll come around. And once one goes in for him, it’ll come.”
After practice on Tuesday morning at the Ford Performance Centre, there remained talk in the room about Marner’s decision to shoot in the extra period against the Oilers, rather than pass to John Tavares on a 2-on-1 break.
“I’m just trying to find myself some good areas and having players make plays that I can finish off,” Marner said.
And how about that moustache?
“Working hard on it and seeing how it goes,” Marner said with a chuckle. “Movember is pretty important (for raising awareness about men’s health issues). My wife was the one who actually said I should get it going, so I’m giving it all I got, but it’s not much.”
The same can’t be said of Marner once the puck is dropped.
X: @koshtorontosun