Maple Leafs centre Mitch Marner carries the puck into the offensive zone as Kings centre Nick Shore defends during a game on Oct. 23, 2017.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
To understand Mitch Marner's place in the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup requires an understanding of Mike Babcock's philosophy as an NHL head coach.
Despite generally being acknowledged as one of the Leafs' best players in Monday's 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings, the only way Marner will get off the fourth line for Thursday's game against the Carolina Hurricanes is if Leafs winger James van Riemsdyk is unable to play. Van Riemsdyk sustained an apparent leg injury in Monday's game and was unable to practise on Wednesday, although Babcock said he expects him to play.
In the meantime, Marner has to keep playing like he did on Monday – skating hard and moving the puck well – and hope Babcock's need for more scoring punch on one of the top three lines outweighs his desire for the status quo. Or someone starts playing like Marner did for the first eight games of the season and gets demoted.
It is easy to look at the two points Marner had against the Kings, and his abundant offensive skills, and say he should be playing on one of the top three lines, which he did last season as a rookie. The problem is, Babcock believes there are roles on every line.
On scoring lines there are two skill players, such as Auston Matthews and William Nylander, and a grinder such as Zach Hyman, who makes the hits, digs out pucks and perhaps scores the odd goal. Ditto for Nazem Kadri and Patrick Marleau, who have Leo Komarov to do the mucking. On the third line, it's van Riemsdyk and centre Tyler Bozak with Connor Brown in the gritty role, although he is such a good two-way player he is a good scorer as well.
With this philosophy, Marner is not going to displace either Hyman or Komarov even if he has more points than either one of them. Babcock rightly knows there are few players on the Leafs who can play the kind of hard minutes Hyman and Komarov put in. The coach certainly does not expect Marner, at a generously listed 6-feet, 175 pounds in the Leafs media guide, to try.
As for replacing Nylander or Marleau or even Brown, who took his spot on Bozak's line several games ago, Marner is up against another of Babcock's coaching tenets, which he articulated after Wednesday's practice: "The beauty of the system is once you get in and play good enough, no one can take you out."
So far, no one is giving Babcock a reason to make a change. Otherwise, the Leafs would not be 7-2 with a plus-10 goal differential and riding in second place in the Eastern Conference.
However, there is another way for Marner to get quality minutes on the ice even if he stays with linemates Dominic Moore and Matt Martin for a while. Babcock still uses Marner on the power play and he likes to use players from every line on the special teams, which means there are shifts for Marner on the top three lines from time-to-time during the period it takes to get back to the regular rotation after a penalty.
By the end of the Kings game, for example, Marner was on the ice for 12 minutes 3 seconds. That was almost twice as much as his linemate Martin (6:23) and about two minutes more than Moore (10:19).
"I think Marner was on three different lines last game," Babcock said. "He'll probably continue to do the same, so I think that's positive. In saying that though, when they're playing good you like to keep them together."
The latter remark was a reference to the fourth line itself. Martin had easily his best game of the season against the Kings. He was a fore-checking force and scored his first goal of the season. The line would have produced another goal but it was disallowed on an iffy goaltender-interference call on Martin.
Given the way things are going for the Leafs, who could blame Babcock for wanting to keep such a productive fourth line together?
In the meantime, while Marner showed much improvement it was one game. In the Babcock world there needs to be a much longer streak of consistency. But Marner seems to have his confidence back.
"In general, I just was throwing the puck away too much," Marner said of his early troubles. "That was the big thing I was doing.
"Last game was a step in the right direction for me. I have to keep doing what I was the last game, moving my feet and keeping the puck. When you're moving your feet and holding the puck, having confidence in it, that's when you're at your best."
If van Riemsdyk cannot play, based on Wednesday's practice Marner would move up to right wing on the third line with Brown flipping to the left side in van Riemsdyk's spot. Josh Leivo would get into his first game of the season in Marner's spot on the fourth line. But Babcock insisted van Riemsdyk should play.