This is the - one, two, three, four - fourth tournament I've coached Mitch, and he has delivered in every one of them at the biggest moments. He is the epitome of calm. His pulse rate lowers when times like this come on. That is how he makes plays as he does. It's how he did it against Sweden in the Four Nations, and how he did it again tonight.
No. 8 seed Czechia gave them everything they could handle in the quarterfinals, as Canada needed a late game-tying goal from Nick Suzuki and a decisive game-winning goal in overtime from Mitch Marner to move on to the semifinals via a 4-3 win. The game featured many critical pivot points, perhaps none more important for the game -- and the future -- than Sidney Crosby sustaining a lower-body injury in the second period that kept him out for the duration.
Carter made the team relevant, guided them to the second round of the playoffs, but was ultimately traded to the New Jersey Nets for nothing. Vansanity (as he was nicknamed) was one not only the most popular player on the Raptors but was one of the most popular players in the NBA. He was the best dunker in the league, as highlighted by the famous 2000 NBA Dunk Contest and he made everyone in Toronto proud that he was ours.
They're probably going to try to do the thing to get me off my game and try to win their own game. I am just going to go out there and focus on my thing. I have a lot of great players around me to help me out. I have been through a couple of things like this before. I'll lean on them.
Marner, who the Leafs drafted in 2015, 4th overall, had nine productive seasons in Toronto, where, as part of the so- called 'core four', this elite playmaker produced 221 goals and 741 points in 657 games until last summer when he became a Golden Knight. Following last season, Marner, who was an unrestricted free agent, took the brunt of some heavy criticism on social media from fans and different Toronto media outlets for the team's disappointing early playoff exit against the Florida Panthers. For the past several years, Marner has taken a lot of blame for the team's playoff failures, and he decided it was time to move on.
Nylander spoke about his relationship with his coach during an interview with The Athletic's Jonas Siegel, touching on how beneficial Berube has been in playing a simple game. "He's very easy to talk to," Nylander said. "It's like any coach. Sometimes you butt heads, and you get into it now and then. But that's different. That's the hockey part. But he's also just a regular person that you can talk to about whatever."
Eichel is one of the NHL's best, but is it fair to worry he won't be able to replicate that point total? The Golden Knights have a new offensive weapon in Mitch Marner. You can look at it as that's a shiny new toy to help the Eichel scoring machine, or it may disrupt or take time to develop chemistry.
In an interview with RG Media published on October 1, Misa had this to say about how Tavares influenced his game coming up through the minors: "In terms of modeling my game, I think it's a bit like John Tavares and a mix of, I want to say, Patrice Bergeron. Just two reliable centremen that are obviously incredible players, and just trying to watch them a lot and model my game after them."
