TORONTO – The date was Dec. 17, 2019.
The score was 3-1. The good team was controlling the game against the bad one.
The star-studded, Stanley Cup-thirsty Tampa Bay Lightning were cruising over the sad-sack, rebuilding Ottawa Senators … until two second-period gaffes by Tampa’s most dynamic forward. (You can watch them here.)
Soft on a backcheck, Nikita Kucherov — who had scored earlier — turned his back on an open Connor Brown, who sniped from the slot for Ottawa’s second goal. Minutes later, Kucherov tried to create high in the O-zone and turned the puck over. Anthony Duclair immediately tied the game on a rush the other way.
Coach Jon Cooper stapled the reigning Hart Trophy champ to the bench for the remainder of the game, stunting Kucherov’s ice time at 13:01. The Bolts salvaged a 4-3 overtime victory despite their MVP’s bad night.
“As a coach, you have to make decisions (for) what was best for us to win tonight. It was our decision,” Cooper said. “He’s a huge part of our team. It could be anybody.”
Kucherov responded with four points in Tampa’s next three games.
When the 2020 playoffs finally rolled around, Kucherov exploded for 34 points in 25 games during the bubble tournament. He put on a sublime performance and helped lead his franchise to a Stanley Cup that felt like years in the making.
If you’re a frustrated Toronto Maple Leafs fan (is there any other brand?), regardless if you’re pointing a finger at Sheldon Keefe or Mitchell Marner in the wake of the club’s latest drama, you should hope both men know the tale of Cooper and Kucherov.
Has Cooper ticked off Kucherov at times? Absolutely. (For what’s it’s worth, Kucherov refused to speak to reporters after his benching that night; Marner did speak after his.)
Have Cooper and captain Steven Stamkos always seen eye-to-eye? Nope.
But that AHL-to-NHL head coach and his star players found a way to navigate disagreements and differences all the way to boat parades.
Let’s provide context for the events that unfolded during the Maple Leafs’ self-inflicted collapse to the last-place Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
The Leafs arrived in Orange County on a three-game losing skid. Confidence was waning, and their top guns weren’t scoring at their expected rate.
Training camp is long and, frankly, when your core has reached the stage of Toronto’s, boring.
Auston Matthews gets asked if 70 goals is within his grasp. Maybe he reads a column about how he could go full Gretzky and score 50 in 50 out the gate.
For William Nylander, he now should aim for 40 goals.
For Marner, who put up 97 points in 2021-22, this has gotta be the year he cracks 100.
“I think what happens is when you get early in a season, you get a lot of offensive players that want to contribute and know that they can contribute, want to put up numbers, and know what their role is on the team,” Keefe said.
“And (when) that’s not happening early in the season, all of a sudden you start to second-guess yourself — and other areas of your game start to slip. You just gotta stop overthinking this thing and get out and move our feet, move the puck quickly, get to the net.”
The game plan against the Ducks was to simplify. Pucks in deep and on net. Remove the risk and excess creativity. Let’s get some ugly goals, clock a win, and hop on a plane.
To a man, everyone pregame was singing from that same chorus book.
The Leafs got up and didn’t dumb it down.
Marner certainly wasn’t solely to blame, but he did get burned on two turnovers.
“When you have the game in control, you have to manage it better,” Keefe said. “Everybody has to be responsible for their touch of the puck. … Both were well-intentioned and everything like that — it’s just, they’re tough plays. We gotta manage those plays better. But we also have to have better support around (the puck), so if things go bad, we’re in good spots.”
Keefe benched his best winger for one shift.
Marner stormed down the hall to break a stick off-camera.
He’d already slammed a door earlier in the trip, when he failed to draw a boarding penalty in Winnipeg. He’s barked at refs and opponents and teammates. He’s a passionate athlete whose emotions — positive or negative — can be contagious.
Postgame, Marner took ownership of his costly gaffe.
“I put a lot on my shoulders, put a lot of pressure on myself, and I wasn’t happy with that second turnover especially,” Marner said. “I want to make sure I’m doing better than that and helping this team win better than that.”
Tensions are high in Leafland. That’s not a created narrative. That’s truth.
(In early 2019, nerves were fraught in Tampa with Cooper and Kucherov, too. That star benching arrived in the wake of the Lightning’s Round 1 embarrassment sweep by Columbus.)
“It feels like the world’s crashing down on you, all this stuff,” Matthews described.
“You can get frustrated all you want about a lot of different things, but this is on us,” Morgan Rielly added. “Players are in control of the outcome, so we’re not gonna lose sight of that.”
Keefe needs Marner more than Marner needs Keefe at this point.
The coach is skating him (and Matthews) into the ground, throwing him out on top special-teams units, and even going so far as to request he dabble on defence.
So, in the name of trying to salvage a desperate win, Keefe did what Cooper did not do.
A half-measure.
A mixed message.
He threw Marner back over the boards. And, heck, the guy nearly saved the night:
“I got no problem with that at all,” Marner told reporters Tuesday of the benching. “I got the opportunity to go out there and finish a couple shifts and almost finish that game in overtime.
“You gotta take accountability, and you gotta put it on yourself.”
That Keefe went so far as to bench Marner in an October game against a bad opponent tells you all you need to know about the options he’s running out of, how difficult he’s finding it to drill his message through.
And that Keefe skipped calling “16!” for only a single shift tells you how much tough love the coach believes he has the authority to get away with.
One-Timers: Timothy Liljegren has wrapped his AHL conditioning stint and has rejoined Maple Leafs practice…. The Leafs recalled centre Pontus Holmberg from Marlies and sent Wayne Simmonds down. Holmberg had a strong training camp. He has two assists through seven AHL games this season. Keefe has been scrounging for a fourth forward to snatch a centre job. He looks to play Wednesday versus Philadelphia…. Free agent Rick Tocchet on Real Kyper & Bourne Monday: “Any coach would want to coach an Original Six team. It would be incredible.” … Matt Murray (abductor injury) is back on the ice. His timeline for return was originally announced for Nov. 12, minimum…. Nick Robertson and Nicolas Aubé-Kubel skated in grey “scratch” sweaters Tuesday.
