TORONTO — The most exhilarating comeback of the Toronto Maple Leafs season was nearly a coach’s decision away from not happening at all.
That’s because Sheldon Keefe briefly considered splitting up Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews while trailing the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3 at the second intermission. But if there’s anything we’ve learned about Keefe during his 15 games behind the Toronto bench it’s that he has an impeccable sense of timing when it comes to shuffling the deck or doubling down.
So, he kept Marner on a line with Matthews and Zach Hyman and watched them nearly blow the roof off Scotiabank Arena with a four-goal third period during Tuesday’s wild 8-6 victory over Carolina.
"We just felt that there’s potential there," said Keefe. "Something could spark itself and get going… I thought that we’d have a chance."
The team’s most explosive offensive weapons basically secured two points on their own. They also helped erase the bad taste of a mistake-filled 40 minutes that saw Toronto race ahead 3-0 before surrendering five unanswered goals to a high-quality Hurricanes outfit.
The Hyman-Matthews-Marner trio has produced seven even-strength goals since being put together midway through Saturday’s visit by Detroit — a staggering rate of production that makes you wonder why Keefe’s predecessor, Mike Babcock, was so reluctant to roll them out together at 5-on-5.
Matthews and Marner saw just 231 minutes on the same line during their first three seasons in the NHL — much less time, for example, than Matthews spent playing with Connor Brown (566:34), Patrick Marleau (477:30) and Andreas Johnsson (427:33).
While Keefe labelled their partnership still "in the experiment stage," it’s clear that he plans to make it more of a habit. And why not? Trailing 6-4, he kept throwing them over the boards and saw Matthews find Marner with a gorgeous spin-o-rama pass, Marner hit Tyson Barrie for the game-tying goal and then Marner score on a breakaway inside a raucous 59-second window.
"[It felt like] New Year’s Eve, I think," said Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen. "Fireworks everywhere. Incredible."
"It’s great to be on their side," added captain John Tavares. "They’re fun players to play with. Great plays, big goals, obviously stepped up huge for us."
"I think we’ve always felt we’ve had fun playing with each other in the past, whether it was for a couple shifts or for a period or one game. We’ve never really had that consistency playing together," Matthews said of Marner. "He’s a really great player and he’s fun to play with. I think we’re just trying to feed off each other like we did tonight. He had an unbelievable game, he made some big plays for us there in the third period."
That was part of a five-point performance from Marner — matching the best game of his career.
Most encouragingly, he’s been back to his dangerous old self since returning from a high-ankle sprain on Dec. 4, putting up six goals and 17 points in nine games. And four of those came during Tuesday’s wild third period that included an assist on Matthews’s 24th goal of the season before his two-goal, one-assist explosion that left the entire building gasping for air.
"Our adrenaline was so high," said Marner. "That moment you’re kind of just riding the high, you feel like you can play forever. I think it comes back to kind of you feeling just like a little kid out there, skating around and something that you want to have.
"We stuck with it, we knew we could do the job and it’s a great team win."
There’s been an uplifting feeling around the team basically since Keefe walked through the door on Nov. 20. They’ve gone 11-4-0 since that coaching change and found some new energy in the process.
Everything Keefe touches seems to turn to gold. There was even a subtle move early in Tuesday’s afternoon start that paid dividends, where he gave Jason Spezza a spot in the opening lineup alongside Tavares and saw Spezza open the scoring 30 seconds in.
Asked why he gave the veteran that nod out of the typical line rotation, Keefe said: "The biggest thing was I had a sense here frankly that with the ‘Next Generation Game’ and it being a two o’clock start that he would have his [four] girls in the building. So, a chance to give him a little moment there and it worked out for us."
That kind of stuff goes a long way inside the dressing room.
So, does giving Marner and Matthews the chance to work their magic together, a decision that helped Toronto hit the Christmas break on a five-game winning streak.
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