Monday Musings: Marner mania was over the top
Actually, the treatment of a team-record 19-game point streak provided an interesting case study on the Maple Leafs fan base...Plus, Barry Fraser and Weekend Leftovers
It goes without saying that Mitch Marner’s 19-game point streak is a significant feat and one certainly worth celebrating. And in an era when creating offence is much more difficult than it was decades ago, it is undoubtedly impressive. After all, more than 900 skaters have played for the Toronto Maple Leafs in franchise history and not one of them – not Charlie Conacher, Babe Dye, Mats Sundin, Doug Gilmour, Frank Mahovlich or Darryl Sittler – has ever accomplished what Marner has done.
But, my word, that was over the top. The reality is that Marner broke a team record for consecutive games with a point, which is, as has already been pointed out, a significant accomplishment. However, it was treated in the local market and by the national broadcaster as though he’d wrapped up the NHL’s Hockey Fights Cancer month by singlehandedly finding a cure for it. It was front-page news in the two daily newspapers that publish on Sundays and one of the pundits on Hockey Night in Canada said prior to Marner breaking the record Saturday night that he hoped Marner would hit the mark so that all those kids out there could have enduring memories of that night in December of 2022.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Hockey Unfiltered with Ken Campbell to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.