Mitch Marner Tells Canada Teammates How to Slow Down Leafs Teammate William Nylander
Photo credit: Dan Hamilton - USA Today Sports
With Team Canada set to kick off the 4 Nations Face-Off against Sweden, Mitch Marner has given his teammates the inside track on how to stop William Nylander.
Canada and Sweden kick off the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off tournament tonight in Montreal. With the best that all nations have to offer, several sets of players have gone from teammates to rivals and with that comes inside information on how to stop them.
Toronto Maple Leafs duo of Mitch Marner and William Nylander are both going to play massive roles for their respective nations. Marner was skating on a line with Connor McDavid and Sam Reinhart while Nylander was seen on a line with Mika Zibanejad and Rickard Rakell.
At the media portion at the end of yesterday's practice, Marner fielded several questions, including what he would tell his teammates if they asked him how they can stop Nylander:
"Try not to watch the puck. He likes to make people try to look silly. So he's obviously very, very skilled out there. Um, you know, easy, smooth with the puck and, you know, makes a lot of things happen where it doesn't look like something should be there."
As for their game plan for Sweden as a whole, Marner remained consistent by saying that all teams are skilled and it's going to take a full team effort:
"Well, I mean, I think for all of this, every team's got a lot of skill and can make a lot of plays. So just staying patient through games, knowing that it's not going to be an easy one in any of these games. You got to work for a lot of your stuff and when you get opportunities, try not to miss."
Canada enters the tournament as the odds-on favourites but the Americans are right on their tail with a star-studded lineup from top to bottom.
Sweden can certainly hold their own in tournaments like these but will need Herculean efforts from players like Nylander to take down the North American giants.
Canada will be paying close attention to Nylander and some of his other teammates like Filip Forsberg and Elias Pettersson tonight in what will be our first taste of international hockey featuring the best-on-best since the World Cup of Hockey in 2016.
Marner will assuredly be looking for a leg-up over his teammate as he looks to get Canada off to a hot start.
| POLL | ||
FEVRIER 12 | 1758 ANSWERS Mitch Marner Tells Canada Teammates How to Slow Down Leafs Teammate William Nylander Will Mitch Marner and William Nylander score tonight? | ||
| Yes | 555 | 31.6 % |
| No | 387 | 22 % |
| Only Mitch Marner | 651 | 37 % |
| Only William Nylander | 165 | 9.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
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