Five Takeaways: Peak Mitch Marner, big guns firing, young D shine (+)

There are some extenuating circumstances, but it is starting to look like the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Mitch Marner, are emerging from an early-season slump. Tuesday’s 4-0 win against an injury-depleted Vegas Golden Knights squad was impressive for the way that Toronto controlled play. It was also accomplished against a team that was missing 4-5 of its top nine forwards.

“I thought right from the start we took control of the game,” said head coach Sheldon Keefe. “I thought we maintained that all the way through.”

“That’s a shorthanded team playing over there,” Keefe continued. “But we have played shorthanded teams before and it hasn’t gone like this here today.”

With Toronto’s stars stepping up to lead the way, there was also a sense of confidence from those stars, not only about their production but about the team’s all-around performance.

“We got a little away from it in the third,” said Mitch Marner after the game.” But, overall, I think that’s the full 60 that we always talk about that we want to play.”

Auston Matthews concurred. “I think that’s an ideal display of hockey that we would like to play and be as consistent as we were tonight.”

To the takeaways…