Hometown kids Brown and Marner help Leafs keep rolling on home-ice

Both rookies, Brown and Marner are enjoying their first taste of NHL life at home. Marner, who grew up just north of the city in Thornhill, now has seven goals and 16 points this season, second among all NHL rookies in scoring. Brown, playing primarily on the Leafs matchup unit, had only three points in 15 games before breaking out with the career-best performance against the Panthers.

“I think every time you step on home ice you still can’t believe it,” Marner said. “A hundred years of this team and luckily enough we’re part of that now.”

Like Brown, Marner is getting used to dealing with constant requests for tickets.

“It’s kind of hard,” he said. “You have a lot of people that always want to come up and watch your games. But it’s always great seeing your friends and family. (Playing junior hockey) in London it was pretty close so I was pretty lucky with that, but it’s been a lot of fun these games. There’s always a lot of family supporting me in the crowd I know.”

The 19-year-old Marner scored the third Toronto goal against Reimer, his sixth marker and 10th point in the past seven games. It was the kind of goal worth rewatching multiple times on replay. Gaining control of the puck just inside the Florida blue line, Marner gained a step on defenceman Michael Matheson and then made a series of dekes to beat Reimer, the former Leaf goaltender.

Marner was still fighting off the advances of Matheson prior to scoring, waiting until the last possible moment to slide the puck from backhand to forehand, tucking it just around the left pad of the Panthers goaltender.

“I was really committed on going to the backhand,” Marner said. “Last second, I kind of just wanted to try and make a move and see what happens.”

Brown more than doubled his early season production in one night against the Panthers.

He got his third career NHL goal by deflecting an innocent-looking Morgan Rielly point shot past a surprised Reimer nearly six minutes into the first. The goal, which gave the Leafs a 1-0 lead, was initially ruled off on account of a high stick, but was later overturned on video review.

After Aaron Ekblad evened the score at one, Brown scored again. This time, he eluded a check along the boards by Ekblad, continued a hard drive down the right side of the ice and then flung a shot on goal as he avoided a diving Jason Demers. Brown crashed into the boards and popped up with a visor full of snow after the shot beat Reimer, who was taken aback by the goal once more.

The former sixth round pick added a pair of assists on goals from Leo Komarov and Jake Gardiner, eclipsing his previous career-high of three points, which also happened to come against the Panthers last season.

Brown has spent most of the season alongside Nazem Kadri and Komarov on the Leafs unit charged with slowing down the opposition’s top line. They were successful in that regard on Tuesday night, not only managing to score a bunch but shut down the Panthers first unit, which features Aleksander Barkov and 44-year-old Jaromir Jagr.

“We can play him against real good players, which is positive,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said of Brown, who was playing in only his 24th game.

Babcock likes Brown’s smarts with and without the puck and believes in his upside offensively. A former OHL scoring champion, Brown started his NHL career last season with six points in his first seven games. His first 15 games this year produced only a single goal and two assists.

Of late, he said he’s become more comfortable with the puck and subsequently, more confident to make plays.

Toronto’s early dominance at home is driven primarily by a hard-charging offence, one that’s managed 37 goals in only nine games or more than four per outing. Frederik Andersen, the Leafs No. 1 goaltender, has also settled in after a rough start to the season. The 27-year-old stopped 26-of-27 shots against the Panthers, improving 6-2-0 with a .930 save percentage in November.

Andersen is 7-2-0 on home ice.

“Obviously we’re pretty confident at home here,” Babcock said. “It’s positive. You feel good because you won.”

Jonas Siegel, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Hometown kids Brown and Marner help Leafs keep rolling on home-ice

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